Result of Robert Walters Global Salary Survey 2009

In the latest Robert Walters' Global Salary Survey 2009, 3 new countries namely China, Switzerland and Thailand have been included from 2008 coverage in their download page.
Malaysian companies were found to be more cautious in their hiring strategy with slowdown in recruitment activity. This slowdown was particularly seen in the FMCG and manufacturing sectors while the telecommunications, IT and oil & gas sectors were less affected. It continues to be a favourite place for MNCs' business process outsourcing (BPO) particularly for accounting and finance sector. There is an increase demand for risk management professionals in financial services. High demand for technology services continues across the board, particularly in software development, system implementation, technology consulting, system administration, IT security and compliance.
Annual salary for permanent staff in some of the roles in Malaysia for the year of 2009 are found to be as follow:

• Accountant (3-5 years experience): RM42-66k
• Auditor (8 years experience): RM85k+
• Chief financial officer: RM250-460k+
• Finance director - large organisation: RM220-270k
• Finance director - small/medium organisation: RM180-240k
• CIO/CTO: RM320-380k+
• SAP consultant: RM100-120k
• Software development manager: RM95-110k
• IT security analyst: RM100-110k
• Software developer: RM55-65k
• Marketing director: RM240-300k
• Sales director: RM240-300k
• Product manager: RM90-96k
• Account manager: RM90-96k

In Singapore, skill shortages were found in the areas of cost accounting, internal audit, financial planning & analysis and taxing. The financial services sector is affected by the economy downturn and salaries are seen to be lesser than 2008 in general. In the engineering, human resources, IT, sales and marketing sectors, salaries are seen to be about the same as 2008. However, a slight increment were still seen in the salaries in legal & compliance sector.

The comprehensive report of Robert Walters Global Salary Survey 2009 covers the following regions:

• Australia
• Belgium
• China
• France
• Hong Kong
• Ireland
• Japan
• Luxembourg
• Malaysia
• New Zealand
• Singapore
• South Africa
• Spain
• Switzerland
• Thailand
• The Netherlands
• United Kingdom
• United States
  

Click here to go to the download page of the Robert Walters Global Salary Survey 2009 report.
 
You might probably also be interested to read on:

• Result of ZDNet Asia IT Salary Benchmark 2009
• JobsDB Compensation and Benefit Survey Report 2009
• Malaysia Employment Outlook & Salary Guide 2009/2010 from Kelly Services

Result of ZDNet Asia IT Salary Benchmark 2009

ZDNet Asia has conducted an online survey between October 2008 and May 2009 to gain insights into salary trends and IT workforce across 8 economies in Asia region, namely China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

The study polled a total of 21,627 respondents from various sectors including government, healthcare, IT, services, telecommunications, legal and finance. Here are some of the analysis results based on their feedback.

Ranking of average annual salary by region:

• Hong Kong (US$66,140)
• Singapore (US$45,341)
• Thailand (US$20,154)
• Malaysia (US$18,350)
• China (US$14,441)
• India (US$11,880)
• Philippines (US$8,448)
• Indonesia (US$6,398)

In Malaysia, respondents who held IT management responsibilities in the IT, Web and telecommunications industry were the highest paid, pulling in an average salary of RM102,280 a year.

The average annual salary of the top 10 most popular IT skills in Malaysia are:

• Consulting/Business services (RM82,037)
  
• Enterprise applications (RM77,407)
  
• Application development (RM69,530)
• Database management (RM69,774)
  
• IT security (RM67,115)
  
• Servers/Networking (RM65,422)
  
• Systems administration (RM64,455)
  
• Operating systems (RM63,710)
  
• Desktops/Software (RM62,792)
• Web development (RM61,894)

In Singapore, respondents who held IT management responsibilities in the legal and finance industry were the highest paid, pulling in an average salary of S$103,598 a year.

The average annual salary of the top 10 most popular IT skills in Singapore are:

• Consulting/Business services (S$83,103)
  
• Enterprise applications (S$78,829)
  
• Infrastructure management (S$76,043)
  
• Application development (S$70,227)
• Database management (S$67,760)
  
• Operating systems (S$67,155)
• Servers/Networking (S$64,800)
  
• Systems administration (S$64,506)
• Web development (S$63,395)
  
• Desktops/Software (S$61,515)

Whereas in Hong Kong, respondents who held IT management responsibilities in the legal and finance industry were the highest paid, pulling in an average salary of HK$824,052 a year.

The average annual salary of the top 10 most popular IT skills in Hong Kong are:

• Infrastructure management (HK$587,132)
  
• Consulting/Business services (HK$583,985)
  
• Enterprise applications (HK$566,628)
  
• IT security (HK$556,399)
  
• Application development (HK$529,132)
• Systems administration (HK$510,840)
• Servers/Networking (HK$503,710)
• Operating systems (HK$502,625)
  
• Database management (HK$497,579)
  
• Desktops/Software (HK$491,515)

For other regions, respondents with the highest paid are from the following job positions:

• China - IT management in the legal and finance industry (RMB244,000)
• India - IT management in the IT, Web and telecommunications industry (984,723 rupees)
• Thailand - IT professionals from the legal and finance industry (1.2 million baht)
  
• Philippines - IT management in the legal and finance industry (671,559 pesos)
• Indonesia - IT management in the legal and finance industry (132.33 million rupiah)

As a conclusion, if you are heading for a high pay IT career, it is wise to get into consulting/business services and/or enterprise applications. Industry wise, the legal and finance industry in the region are generally paying more to their IT staff than those in the ICT industry, except for Malaysia and India.

Click here to get more complete and detail information about the ZDNet Asia IT Salary Benchmark 2009.


You might probably also be interested to read on:

• Result of Robert Walters Global Salary Survey 2009
• JobsDB Compensation and Benefit Survey Report 2009
• Malaysia Employment Outlook & Salary Guide 2009/2010 from Kelly Services 

BNM issues new design RM50 banknote with enhanced security features

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) starts to issue a new design RM50 banknote with enhanced security features from 15 July 2009.

The enhanced security features incorporated in this new design of RM50 banknote are:

• The Colour Shifting Security Thread which replaces the existing security thread and is embedded in the paper. The thread appears on the reverse side of the note as coloured intermittent lines. When held against light, it is seen as a continuous dark coloured line and the repeated text of BNM RM50 can be read. When the note is tilted, the colour of the thread changes from red to green and vice versa. Under ultra-violet light, the repeated text of BNM RM50 will fluoresce yellow and the thread is seen as a continuous fluorescent yellow line when the banknote is viewed from the obverse.
• The Two-Coloured Fluorescent Elements is an additional invisible printed feature on the reverse of the note. Under ultra-violet light, a complex design two-colour numeral 50 will fluoresce.

The existing security features which are designed for public verification remains as follows:

• The Watermark Portrait can be recognised by tints that are lighter or darker than the surrounding paper. This watermark portrait which has a three-dimensional effect appears without sharp outlines. At the base of the watermark, the numeral 50 is clearly visible.
• Perfect See-Through Register features the songket design on the obverse and reverse of the banknote when it is held against the light.
• Invisible Fluorescent Elements of the background on the obverse and reverse of the banknote which fluoresces in different colours under ultra-violet light.
• Micro-Letterings of "BNM RM50" which can be viewed under a magnifying glass.
• Holographic Stripe features the numeral 50 and hibiscus flower.
• Multicolor Latent Image where the numeral 50 is visible when the banknote is tilted slightly and changes colour when it is rotated.
• Anti-Scanner feature in which certain design cannot be captured by scanning machines.
• Braille Feature for the visually impaired.

According to BNM, existing design series of the RM50 banknote will continue to remain legal tender and will co-circulate with the new RM50 banknotes as the former are gradually phased out. No time limit has been set on the duration of co-circulation.

Mercer Worldwide Cost of Living Survey 2009

Mercer’s Worldwide Cost of Living Survey covers 143 cities across 6 continents and measures against New York on the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.

The resulting Cost of Living Information Report (non-free) is considered as the world's most comprehensive survey of its kind and is intended to help multinational companies and governments determine compensation allowances for their expatriate employees.

The report includes comprehensive information such as city-to-city index comparison, expatriate accommodation costs, education costs, business travel expenses, actual price list, and the list of stores and sources.

Based on the latest report dated March 2009, Tokyo is the most expensive city to live in, while Johannesburg is the cheapest. It is observed that cities in the US, China, Japan and the Middle East have surged in the ranking.

The top 20 expensive cities ranked in 2009 are:

• Tokyo, Japan
• Osaka, Japan
• Moscow, Russia
• Geneva, Switzerland
• Hong Kong, China
• Zurich, Switzerland
• Copenhagen, Denmark
• New York, US
• Beijing, China
• Singapore, Singapore
• Milan, Italy
• Shanghai, China
• Paris, France
• Oslo, Norway
• Caracas, Venezuela
• London, UK
• Tel Aviv, Israel
• Rome, Italy
• Helsinki, Finland
• Dubai, UAE

Click here for the top 50 cities ranking in the Worldwide Cost of Living Survey 2009.

You might also be interested to read about:

UBS Price and Earnings Report 2009

Understanding the thinking of Gen-X and Gen-Y in your organization

Today's workforce is mainly formed by the following 3 generations of workers:

• Baby boomers: typically refers to those born between 1946 to 1964, after World War II and before the age of Internet.
• Gen-X: typically refers to those born between 1965 and 1977.
• Gen-Y: also known as the millennials, typically refers to those born between 1978 and 1997, who have been brought up by technology.

The Malaysian Human Resource Advisory team of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has done a survey among the Gen-Y employees of today. The result of their survey is an interesting study of a group of employees which is both vastly different from their managers, and which brings unique skills and perspectives to the table.

PwC found out that the Gen-Y forms approximately 62% of our workforce today, so it is important for managers and business owners to plug into their frame of mind and understand their thinking.

Click here to download the full 40-pages report on "Malaysia’s Gen Y unplugged - A 2009 PricewaterhouseCoopers survey on millennials at work".

New generation web servers - lighttpd, nginx, Cherokee

New generation web servers have evolved recently, and gradually taken up the market share from Apache and IIS, which still dominate the web server market nowadays.

Of course, there are always many brands of web server made available to the market, but so far they haven't managed to make some major impact to the market share of Apache and IIS, until the emergence of these new generation web servers - lighttpd, nginx and Cherokee.



These 3 web servers have some common similarities which form the key factors for their successful breakthrough in the web server market.

• They are all in the open source world. lighttpd and nginx are distributed under BSD license while Cherokee is distributed under GPL Version 2 license.
• They are all developed in C Language and designed for Linux/FreeBSD/Unix platform. They can also run in Windows (although it is really a bad idea to use Windows as Windows OS itself is a major source of performance issue for multiuser network server applications) by riding on Cygwin. With some minor porting, Cherokee can run in Windows by itself without any Cygwin component.
• They are all designed to be lightweight, which consume as little CPU and memory resource as possible. This make them a good choice for virtualized server environment and also for use in embeded systems.
• They are all designed with high performance to be able to handle large amount of traffic with fast respond time. They make good use of the Linux kernel’s fast, state-of-art interfaces to accelerate request handling. Benchmarking tests show that they can easily perform twice faster than Apache and many times faster than IIS.
  
• They are all modular, which is highly configurable for required features and options based on actual need.
  
• They can all work with PHP and MySQL, which is the current major trend for web applications.
• They all support virtual hosting, which is a basic feature that must exist in any web server application nowadays.
  
• They all support modern features such as load balancing, video streaming, etc.

Among the 3 of them, lighttpd (a.k.a. Lighty) first came into attention a few years back, and is now in used by popular websites such as YouTube, SourceForge, Meebo, Wikimedia, Flickr, Imageshack, Sendspace, The Pirate Bay, Mininova, etc.

Now, lighttpd is overtaken by nginx (pronounced as Engine-X) to become the current favourite, which powers popular websites such as Rambler, WordPress.com, Yellow Pages, Hulu, Zimbra, etc.

Cherokee came into picture around 2006, and has quickly gained popularity with massive development and extensive features. One thing to make it stand out from the rest is a very user friendly web-based administration interface called cherokee-admin. Following its development trend, it has the potential to overtake the rest and become the most preferred web server of choice.

The cost behind Maybank EzyCheque Instant Cash

My first credit card is a Maybank classic card which I have kept for almost 10 years.

I can't remember since when, Maybank will send me every year without fail a promotional letter about EzyCheque Instant Cash promotion attached with a RM2000 cheque that I can bank in to my bank account before the expiry date as stated in the letter.

This Maybank EzyCheque Instant Cash facility always says it is "0% or interest-free for 6 months", but also with a so called "low cash advance fee of 3.88% or RM77.60". However, it is only "0% or interest-free" if I settle the repayment of RM333.33 every month for 6 months subsequently, there will be interest charges for late repayment and also penalty charges for early settlement (which could be caused by card cancellation, balance transfer, etc.) before the 6th month.

Let's say I accept the offer, and follow the scheme exactly, then I'll:

• Get RM2000 after I bank in the cheque.
• Charged RM77.60 for cash advance fee in my next credit card bill.
• Charged RM333.33 in my next 6 months of credit card bill.

What will be the actual cost then? Here is the calculation:

• I get RM2000 - RM77.60 = RM1922.40 from the bank.
• I pay back RM333.33 x 6 = RM1999.98 to the bank.
• Therefore, the cost incurred is RM1999.98 - RM1922.40 = RM77.58
• That will translate into RM77.58/RM2000 x 100% = 3.88%

Of course, this 3.88% in 6 months is comparatively cheaper than getting a normal credit card cash advance or personal loan. However, it only make sense to utilize this EzyCheque Instant Cash facility if I can earn back at least RM77.58 with it in the near future.

If I were to:

• spend the RM2000 to buy things, I will end up losing another RM77.58 which is good enough to have a nice dinner in a classy restaurant for two.
• use the money to settle any debt which interest rate is more than 7.76% per annum, I can save some money from there.
  
• keep the money in a FD account with interest rate at 2.5% per annum, I will need to keep it for at least 2 years to recover back that RM77.58. After that, if I don't withdraw the money, it will start working for me by bringing interest income.
  
• keep the money in a Flexi-homeloan account with interest rate at BLR-2% = 3.55%, I can save about RM5.70 housing interest every month, which will take me about 14 months to recover back that RM77.58. After that, if I don't withdraw the money, it will start working for me by saving RM5.70 every month until my homeloan is settled.
• invest the money in short term investment and make a return of more than 10% within a year, then I can make some pocket money with it.
• invest the money in long term investment and make an annual return of more than 10%, then I can probably double or even triple it up in years to come.
  

Sometimes, I opted to tear and discard the EzyCheque, and sometimes, I opted to utilize the facility. It all depends on how I'll use the money. The key point is that, by utilizing the facility, we are using our future money (in the subsequent 6 months) at the cost of 3.88%.

It all depends on whether:

• there is an urgent need for the money
• it is a good investment timing

Do not be afraid of that RM77.58 cost if you know that it worth to spend, but also do not waste it blindly.

Beta release of Microsoft Security Essentials free antivirus

Within the next couple of hours, Microsoft will release the first beta version of their Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE, codename Morro) to selected regions.

MSE is an anti-malware software aimed to provide protection against viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans for certain Windows operating systems.

Here are some of the fact findings:

• The core developer team of MSE is in Israel.
  
• This beta release will be made available on 23 June 2009 to the first 75,000 downloads from Brazil, Israel and the United States.
• It is treated as the successor of Windows Live OneCare, which is a subscription based security solution from Microsoft which has been phased out since end of 2008. Retail sales of Windows Live OneCare will be discontinued by end of June 2009.
  
• Its antivirus framework is the same with Windows Live OneCare.
• Subsequent beta release(s) will include China. Its final release to the whole world will be by end of 2009.
• It will be made available free of charge and downloadable from Microsoft website.
• It can be installed in 32-bits and 64-bits version of Windows XP (SP2 and above), Windows Vista, and Windows 7.
• Its installation will need to pass through the Microsoft's anti-piracy Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) validation process.
• It is designed to be lightweight and use little system resources.
• It is reported to take up about 50MB of RAM when running.
  
• It is able to provide real-time protection with heuristic feature.
• It has a user interface similar like Windows Defender. If Windows Defender is found when installing MSE, MSE will replace itself to Windows Defender.
  
• It relies on Windows Automatic Update feature to update its malware signature database.

And here is a comparison table to compare the features among various security solutions produced by Microsoft.

Three essential managers for successful project

Rick Freedman has just posted an article with the title of "Keep management roles in a project separate" in TechGuides.

In his point of view, every project engagement must have the following:

• Clear business meaning
• Defined success criteria
• Technical plan
• Project plan
• Sponsorship and stakeholder participation

Each of those engagements requires superior management of three elements:

• Process - managed by project manager
• Content - managed by technical manager
• Relationship - managed by relationship manager

The project manager must ensure that a clear scope has been written, a meaningful estimate has been derived, and a complete project plan has been developed, along with all the other process elements required by his chosen methodology.

The technical manager oversees all the technical decisions: the technical specifications, the materials list, the software stack, and the integration of all these components.

The relationship manager is required to manage the needs, expectations, emotions, and politics that are an inevitable part of every human endeavour, so that the perception of the end product matches the client team's vision.

It is not advisible for a single person to assume the job of all the three roles, because the required skills and temperament are different, and difficult to be mastered equally well by a single person. More importantly, playing all the three roles together will be facing conflict of interest. As such, separation of roles for these three essential management functions is strongly recommended in order to increase the success rate and client satisfaction.

I agree with him, do you?

Are you clear about your authority, responsibility and accountability?

The job description for the individual in any organization should clearly define his/her authority, responsibility and accountability. This is crucial so that the job and assignments for the individual can be carried out in accordance to management expectation.

Individuals who are clear about their authority, responsibility and accountability, and perform accordingly, will eventually gain job satisfaction and also job recognition sooner or later.

While these terms are normal literature in school of management, people like me coming from the technical background who didn't study and graduate from the management college also ought to learn about them, especially when we are already in the management position in our organization.

• Authority is the power granted to the individuals by their job assignment so that they can make decisions, and also direct others to follow their decisions made. Normally, more authority will be given to more senior positions in the organization.
  

• Responsibility is the obligation incurred by individuals in their roles in the organization in order to effectively perform their assignments. Responsibility is always a key performance indicator to be measured for appraisal.
  

• Accountability is the state of being totally answerable for the success or failure to accomplish their specific assignment(s). People gain credits (and also disgraces) for their accountability. In fact, accountability is the summation of authority and responsibility.

We must be aware that authority and responsibility can be delegated to lower level individuals (eg. subordinates) in the organization, whereas accountability usually rests with the individual.

When we delegate the authority and responsibility downwards, we will also develop our management and leadership skills. Bear in mind that we are still accountable and answerable to the result (success/failure) of the overall tasks, while at the same time the delegate recipients held their own authority, responsibility and accountability for the portion delegated to them.

We usually find management issue when people are not clear about their authority, responsibility, and accountability, and/or they do not understand well about the meaning of these terms. Some examples of such issue are:

• Senior people keep the task to themselves and not willing to delegate down. This phenomenon is pretty common in the technical environment. This will be unhealthy for the growth of the senior people as well as the subordinate(s), and also cause productivity issue. In fact, this is also a demerit factor for the leadership of the senior people.
• Senior people delegate down the work, and try to carry away the success merit. In fact, it is not necessary to carry away, because they are accountable for it and deserve for the merit of success. They should therefore also recognise and give merit to their delegate recipients for their accomplishment too. The junior people must also understand that their senior deserve the merit of success, because they are accountable for it all the while.
  
• Senior people delegate down the work, but try to push the failure accountability to the delegate recipients. Well, you must know that you are always be accountable, be it a success or failure, and cannot escape from it. In no way you could avoid it, so just face it. Any attempt of avoidance will bring disgrace to yourself.
• Responsibility is not delegated together with suitable authority. This will cause difficulty for the delegate recipients to carry out the tasks without the authority given, and could be a cause of failure later on.
  
• The individuals are not clear about the boundary of their authority, responsibility and accountability. This might cause management issue when somebody try to overpower, or unable to use their power effectively and efficiently. It is the responsibility of their superior to correct them when this kind of situation happens.
  
• The individuals are not clear about their authority, responsibility and accountability. This is a serious case because the individuals are unclear about their role in the organization and what is their value to the organization. Very soon they will be demotivated. It is the responsibility of their superior to make sure they understand clearly about their authority, responsibility and accountability from day one when they join the organization.

Now, a simple question for you to ask yourself: Are you clear about your authority, responsibility, and accountability in your company? If not, you better find them out as soon as possible.

1st Asia Women Business Power Conference

With the theme of "Women Business Power Through Good and Bad Times ", the 1st Asia Women Business Power Conference organized by MCA ICT Resource Centre (MIRC) targeted for women entrepreneurs throughout the region will be held soon at Technology Park Malaysia (TPM) and expected to be launched by the Minister of Housing and Local Government, Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha (江作汉).

Date: 18 June 2009
Time: 8.30am - 6,00pm
Venue: Auditorium, Level 1, Enterprise 4, Technology Park Malaysia, Bukit Jalil, KL.
Enquiry tel.: 03-2161 1618

This conference is part of MIRC's effort to kick-start its Women Incubation Program, a program that helps to develop and nurture women entrepreneurs. A major highlight of the event is the creation of an Asia Women Business Network which will become a platform to foster closer cooperation among women entrepreneurs throughout the region.

Among the speakers are:

• Yasmin Mahmood - Managing Director, Microsoft Malaysia
• Rita Sim Sai Hoon (沈赛芬) - Executive Director, Sin Chew Media Corp
• Ksenyia Melnikova - Product Information Officer, Super Technologies
• Dato' Sharon Low (刘淑淼) - Managing Director, StemLife Bhd
• Nguyen Thi Cuc - Chairwoman, Banhat Rattan Bamboo Ceramic High-Grade Cooperation
• Irene Boey - Consulting Director, Integral Solutions (Asia) Pte Ltd
• Raymond Chin (陈云祥) - CEO, NCB Techvision Sdn Bhd
• Koh Lee Ching - CEO, Calms Technologies Sdn Bhd
• Janet Tan - co-founder, YourPartTime.com
• Dr. Petmanee Daowieng - Director of Graduate School of Business (MBA), Hatyai University
• Mrs Chanthao PATHAMMAVONG - President, Lao Businesswomen's Association
• Suzanne Bowen - co-founder, Super Technologies
• Patric Chan - internet marketer
• Hanson Toh (杜汉生) - Malaysia Country Consultant, Google Inc.

Click here for more information about the 1st Asia Women Business Power Conference.

Antivirus, Internet Security & Total Security Products Performance Benchmarking (2009)

Do you know that the Antivirus, Internet Security and/or Total Security product(s) installed in your computer could be consuming a lot of memory and CPU resources? They could also cause a lot of additional harddisk read/write activities. This could be the main reason why your PC become lagged.

Therefore, you should seriously consider the effect of the security solution to your computer performance, and select one that will have minimal impact, especially on memory and CPU consumption.

On 16 March 2009, PassMark Software has released the 4th edition of their 73-pages Antivirus, Internet Security and Total Security Performance Benchmarking Report.

The report was based on the performance benchmark testing results done on 47 Antivirus, Internet Security and Total Security products (free and non-free) from various vendors between July 2008 and October 2008.

Testing was performed on all products using seventeen performance metrics. These performance metrics are as follows:

• Boot time
• Total Scan speed
• UI launch speed (initial and subsequent)
• Memory utilization
• HTTP download test
• IE launch speed (initial and subsequent)
• Installation Size
• Installation Time
• Registry Key Count
• Copying, moving and deleting different types of common files
• Installing third party applications
• Downloading binary files from websites
• File format conversion
• File compression and decompression
• File write, open and close
  

Note that no attempt was made to measure the effectiveness of threat detection.

Here are the overall results and ranking from the benchmarking tests.





Click here to download the 4th edition of Antivirus, Internet Security & Total Security Products Performance Benchmarking Report (2009) by PassMark Software.

BoB, IOB & Andhra Bank to setup India BIA Bank in Malaysia

Three Indian public banks namely Bank of Baroda (BoB), Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) and Andhra Bank have initiated a joint venture to set up a subsidiary in Malaysia. Under the joint venture, BoB will have a 40% stake and IOB 35% while Andhra Bank holds the balance 25%.

The joint venture bank will be named as India BIA Bank (Malaysia) Bhd, and is expected to start operations by September 2009 with an initial investment of US$86 million (RM300 million).

Their targeted customers will be the Indian corporate sector, expatriates from India and the Indian population in Malaysia. It will focus on lending to edible oil and mentha oil, besides tapping local corporates and the ethnic business community.

With BoB having extensive network in Central and Northern India, and IOB and Andhra Bank in the Southern parts of India, the subsidiary in Malaysia is expected to attract the technical expatriate population who has migrated to Malaysia from different parts of India.

BoB and IOB already having a presence in Malaysia for some years through their representative offices, and they have studied the market well and are well aware of the available opportunities for business development.

This is viewed as a good news to be able to facilitate more trades between India and Malaysia. Trades between the two nations has increased by 84.32% in FY07 and 30.07% in FY08.

Invest Malaysia 2009 conference

Invest Malaysia is an annual conference organized by Bursa Malaysia since 2005, which is arguably the country's most prominent showcase of public-listed companies which draws investors from all over the world.

It gives fund managers and institutional investors (both local and foreign) the chance to get first-hand information from corporate captains and government officials about investment opportunities in Malaysia.

Usually held in the month of March, this year it will be held from 30 June to 1 July.

Date: 30 June - 1 July 2009
Venue: Shangri-La Hotel, Kuala Lumpur

Bursa Malaysia will host the Invest Malaysia 2009 conference together with CIMB Investment Bank this year. Some 600 delegates are expected to attend the event.

Click here fore more information about Invest Malaysia 2009.

Kids Money Management Camp

There will be a Kids' Money Management Camp during this school holiday for the kids to develop good money habits using clear, practical examples and to empower parents as good role models who cultivate a harmonious money belief in family. Among the key beliefs that will be taught are good money stewardship & responsibility and money values.

Date: 5-13 June 2009
Time: 9am - 5pm
Venue: CIMB Wealth Advisors Bhd, Financial Care Centre, Damansara Perdana, PJ, Selangor.
Fees: RM150 (for 1 child and parents)

OpenSource World, Next Generation Data Center (NGDC) and CloudWorld conferences @ San Francisco

This year, the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo is expanding to become OpenSource World and is co-locating with Next Generation Data Center (NGDC) and CloudWorld to offer an end-to-end view of enterprise technology within the datacenter.

The event details are as follow:
Date: 12-13 August 2009
Venue: Moscone Center West, 800 Howard Street, San Francisco, CA

The OpenSource World tracks will cover:

• Desktops and netbooks
• Enterprise application infrastructure
• Deployment and management
• Open source in mobile
• Security
• Systems troubleshooting

The NGDC tracks will cover:

• Virtualization
• Efficient, resilient and sustainable facilities
• Networking, services and optimization
• Data center applications
• Enterprise storage

The CloudWorld tracks will cover:

• Cloud applications
• Cloud platforms
• Cloud infrastructure

Click here for more information about the OpenSource World, Next Generation Data Center (NGDC) and CloudWorld conferences.

Justify your expected salary during job interview session

I always find the candidates coming for job interview failed to provide a satisfactory answer to justify their expected salary.

The answer they gave often related to their personal needs, such as:

• I come from outstation and need to cover my expenses.
• I have parents, siblings and my own family to take care of.
• I need to repay my car loan, house loan, etc.
• and so on...

Candidates have to bear in mind that the company you are applying for the job is most unlikely a charity organization which give you the job because they want to take care of your personal needs. Normally they give you the job because you are suitable to fill in the job vacancy offerred by them.

It might be a true situation that you need that much money to support for your living, and there is nothing wrong with it. However, you just can't use that as a justification to your expected salary, because your answer doesn't view from the employer's perspective.

Therefore, when you are asked to justify for your expected salary, your line of thinking should go towards what are the values in you that the company is most probably looking for. What are the things that make you outstanding from the other candidates (your competitors)?

The following are points that can be used for your answer:

1. Your education background

• Are you graduate from a renown university well recognised for its academic competency?
• Do you possess a well recognised double major, a master degree, a PhD, etc.?
• Do you score above average in your exams?
• Are you a leader in your school's extra-curricula activities?
• Are you a winner in contests, competitions, sports, etc.?

2. Your job related certifications

• Have you obtained any certifications related to the job that you apply for? Such as CCNP, CISSP, LPI, etc.

3. Your professional membership status

• Do you have any membership in professional bodies? Such as IEEE, BEM, ACCA, etc.

4. Your working experiences

• Have you involved in international projects?
• Have you handled big projects?
• Have you been in a leadership position?
• Have you worked for famous organisation(s)?
• Have you organised major events?
  
• Do you have vast exposure in multiple disciplines?
• Do you have any achievements that you are always proud of?

5. Your special skillsets that is useful for the job you apply

• Do you master multilingual, including major non-English languages such as Chinese, Japanese, etc.
• Can you speak in dialects that might be in use in the job environment? Especially for customer facing roles such as sales, customer service, marketing, etc.
  
• Are you good in public speaking?
• Are you good in performing presentation?
  
• Are you good in problem solving? (Eg. do you have hobby in chess, sudoku, strategic computer games, etc.?)
  
• Are you well computer literate?

6. Testimonials from others

• What did your professor (especially thesis supervisor) commented about you?
• What did your current and previous bosses commented about you?
• Did you obtain any letter of appreciation from your customers?
• Who are your referees? Are they a famous person in their profession? Are they publicly well-known? Do they have special title such as Datuk, Tan Sri, PJK, AMN, etc.?

7. Other recognations

• Have you written book(s)?
• Did you contribute articles to publications and/or journals?
• Have you been invited to give talks in seminars or events?
• Have you obtained recognition status such as "employee of the year", "top sales", etc. from your previous/current company?
• Have you been positively reported in the newspaper, magazine, etc.

So, during a salary negotiation, you should show your worthiness based on your values which you think are likely to be appreciated by the company, especially those that have direct positive impacts to the job vacancy you applied for. You should try to convince the employer why they have to employ you and pay you the amount you ask for, despite there might be other candidates (your competitors) asking for less.

A good employer will most probably give you what you asked for, as long as you can justify it, and the amount is within their budget. Sometimes, they will possibly frankly tell you that they cannot affort your expected salary, and you should not feel disappointed about that. What you should do is to look for employer with better financial strength, and more willing to pay for good employee like you.

MSC Malaysia Open Source Conference 2009

With the theme "Open To Change", the MSC Malaysia Open Source Conference (OSCONF) 2009 will be held in Kuala Lumpur soon.

This international open source event consists of hackathon, forum, exhibition, talks, etc. for sharing and exchanging ideas on technical advancements, applications, development and business cases on open source, and its positive impact in meeting challenges of the current economic climate.

Venue: Berjaya Time Square Hotel & Convention Centre, Kuala Lumpur.
Date: 31 May - 3 June 2009
Time: 9.30am - 6pm

Click here for more information about the MSC Malaysia Open Source Conference 2009.

Forbes Asia 2009 Malaysia 40 Richest List

Forbes Asia has just unveiled the Malaysia 40 Richest List for 2009. Here is the complete list:



This list was compiled using shareholder and financial information provided by individuals themselves, stock exchanges, public documents and analysts. For people with publicly traded documents, net worths were calculated using stock prices and exchange rates from 15 May 2009. Privately held fortunes were calculated using database company BRIS and other sources to estimate what companies and assets would be worth if public.

Click here to read more about the Forbes Asia 2009 Malaysia 40 Richest List.

Configure Ubuntu login window appearance and behavior

By default, when you boot up Ubuntu Linux, you will first reach the GDM login window whereby you'll have to provide your username and password in order to login and use the system. Do you know that you can easily configure and personalize this login window with the Login Window Preferences? You can even enable automatic login so that you can directly reach your Desktop, bypassing the login process, good for single-user computer.

To configure your Ubuntu login window appearance and behavior, go to System > Administration > Login Window.



Among the configurable items in Ubuntu Login Window Preferences are:

• Hide/show visual feedback (the "***") in password entry. By hiding the visual feedback, no asterisk will appear when you key-in your password, which is more secured.
  
• Enable/disable multiple login for single user
• Change the theme. There are a few preloaded themes available, to download and install more themes, please read on...
• Hide/show the Action Menu, which consist options to shutdown, restart, select XDMCP, etc.
• Customize the greeting welcome message.
• Enable/disable remote login of X-Window.
• Configure the style for remote login window.
• Enable/disable accessible login.
• Customize the music played when login screen ready, upon successful login and/or when login failed.
• Enable/disable automatic login without asking for password.
• Enable/disable timed login. This will automatically try to login the selected user after inactivity of defined seconds in the login screen.
• Allow/deny local and/or remote system administrator login directly into the system.
• Allow/deny TCP connection to the XServer. It should be denied for security reason. Denying TCP to XServer doesn't affect the XDMCP function.
  
• Include/exclude user in the face browser listing of the login window.
  
• Some other security related settings.
  

You can download and install more themes and artworks from the GNOME Artwork Server by using the Ubuntu Art Manager. Just access to System > Preferences > Art Manager.

To download and install the themes for Login Manager, go to Art > Other Themes > Login Manager in the Ubuntu Art Manager. The Art Manager will then download the information of available themes from the GNOME Artwork Server, including the name, snapshot, description and author, and list them in the selection box as shown below.

From LCD TV to LED TV to OLED TV

I notice that there is a new species of flat panel television called LED TV available in the electrical shops nowadays. Here are some of the fact finding.

Pioneered by Samsung, LED TV is in fact a LCD TV using Light-Emitting Diodes (LED) as its backlight, contrasting to the Cold-Cathode Fluorescent Lamps (CCFL) backlight of normal LCD TV. This innovation has made Samsung to receive a prestigious award from European Image and Sound Association (EISA) in 2006, for its premium display technology in terms of true colour representation with a 46% larger colour gamut and the industry's highest contrast ratio of 10,000:1 by then.

According to Samsung, their LED TV provides improvements in 3 distinct areas:

1. Breakthrough picture quality with higher contrast, sharper motion and enriched colour.

2. Ultra slim design at only 1.2" deep with lighter weight.

3. Environmental friendly with 40% electric power savings than normal LCD TVs, produce less heat, and also lead and mercury free.

It is also claimed that the LED light source can double the TV panel life compared to the CCFL panels.

Beside Samsung, other manufacturers such as Sharp, Sony, LG, Panasonic, etc. have also produced their own series of LED TV. Of course, you will expect the price of LED TV to be higher than LCD TV of the same size.

Meanwhile, the television technology keeps on progressing, and the next generation will be a true LED TV called Organic LED TV (OLED) using the Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (AMOLED) technology, this time to be led by Sony.

The primary benefit of OLED displays over the LCDs is that OLEDs do not require a backlight to function, and consume even less power. This technology also enable the panel to be ultra-slim, weight even lighter, and more robust. Of course, better quality display can also be expected.

On the other hand, we can notice that the plasma TV gradually step down from the TV technology warfare, following the CRT TV, as there is not much technology breakthrough and also less R&D investment allocated by the major manufacturers.

Database synchronization/replication with SymmetricDS

SymmetricDS is an open source, feature rich, web-enabled, database independent, data synchronization/replication software. It is written in Java 5 and released under GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) version 3.

It uses web and database technologies to replicate tables between relational databases in near real time. The software was designed to scale for a large number of databases, work across low-bandwidth connections, and withstand periods of network outage. By using database triggers, SymmetricDS guarantees that data changes are captured and atomicity is preserved.

Supported databases including:

• MySQL version 5.0.2 and above

• Oracle version 8.1.7 and above

• PostgreSQL version 8.2.5 and above

• Sql Server 2005

• HSQLDB 1.8

• H2 1.1

• Apache Derby 10.3.2.1 and above

• IBM DB2 9.5

• Firebird 2.0 and above

SymmetricDS allows for 2-tier and even n-tier synchronization, which can be configured to push data (trickle-back) or pull data (trickle-poll) at an interval, as illustrated below:



The software is installed either standalone, as a web application in a Java application server or can be embedded into another Java application.

SymmetricDS will be useful for data synchronization between a central database and multiple remote databases. This kind of requirement is often in:

• HQ and branches
  
• General office and retail outlets
• Police HQ and stations
  
• Ministry of education and schools
• Ministry of health and hospitals & clinics
• etc.

Click here for more information about SymmetricDS.

20th CommunicAsia + 14th BroadcastAsia + 6th Enterprise IT + 3rd InteractiveDME @ Singapore

The 20th CommunicAsia, together with 14th BroadcastAsia, and 6th Enterprise IT, and also 3rd InteractiveDME will be held concurrently in Singapore Expo this coming 16-19 June 2009.

The combined shows of CommunicAsia, Enterprise IT and InteractiveDME focus on the latest hot technologies for applications, solutions and hardware. It covers all aspects of the ICT industry. Co-located with Broadcast Asia, the regional event for digital media and entertainment, convergence is a major focal point of this unique event.

The streams and forums held at the CommunicAsia 2009 Summit will focus on popular topics like Broadband Access Technologies, such as Fixed & Wireless broadband, WiMAX / LTE / HSPA / WiBro, Mobile Backhaul, FTTH & GPON / GEPON, Mobile Interactive Services & Technologies, involving Mobile Internet, LBS, Messaging, Mobile advertising & NGMN, Next Generation Networks, comprising of Service Delivery Platforms, IMS, VoIP, Video Over IP, Triple Play / Quad Play & Web 2.0.

Key EnterpriseIT 2009 exhibitors include Barracuda, BlackBerry, Blue Coat Systems, CBOSS, DZ Card, Eaton Corporation, Fortinet, Garmin, Harmonic, Huawei, Irdeto, LG Electronics, Microtex Energy, NAVTEQ, NTT Docomo, PCCW Global, Petracarbon, Rosenberger, Samsung Electronics, SES NEW SKIES, Singapore Technologies Electronics, TANDBERG TV, Thuraya, VINASA, Yahoo!, ZTE Corporation and many others.

Interactive Digital Media & Entertainment (InteractiveDME) targets applications and solutions providers, industry leaders and professionals from the communications, broadcasting, media & entertainment industries, covering 3D, Digital Signage, IPTV, Mobile Broadband, Mobile Entertainment, Navigation and LBS, Social Networking / Social Media Technologies, and more...

Key BroadcastAsia 2009 exhibitors include ABE, ANT, APT, Argosy, Axel, Axon, Beijing APU, Benchmark, BT Media, Cine Equipment, Conax, CTE, DMT, DVB, Elber, Electrosys, Evertz, Harris, Huatian, Indiasign, Klotz Digital, Lawo, Magna, Max Peak, Miranda, Monarch, Nautel, Netia, Playbox, RCS, Ross Video, RVR, Salzbrenner, Screen Service, Shenzhen Coship, Siel, Skyworth, Temix, Vizlink, VIZRT, VSN…and many more.

For more information:

• CommunicAsia 2009
• BroadcastAsia 2009
  
• EnterpriseIT 2009
• InteractiveDME 2009

Launching of iCapital International Value Fund

Capital Dynamics (Australia) Ltd, a member of the Capital Dynamics group led by the renown Malaysian fundamentalist investor and fund manager Mr. Tan Teng Boo (陈鼎武), will launch the iCapital International Value Fund on 1 June 2009.

As a tracked record, from 1998 to Mar 2009, Capital Dynamics Asset Management Sdn Bhd run by Tan Teng Boo delivered a net compound return of 19.78% annually versus 3.16% per annum for the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI). Meanwhile, Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has delivered annual returns of only 5% over that period! If one were to compare Tan’s performance with Warren Buffett’s in the last 10 years, Tan wins. (Source: The Star - Up Close and Personal with Tan Teng Boo)

The iCapital International Value Fund (ICIVF) is an open ended, managed investment scheme registered in Australia which invests in listed securities globally. As investors do not pay any entry or exit fees, they buy and sell based on its NAV. The ICIVF will be denominated in Australian dollars.

Any interested investors, retail, corporate, or institutional, can invest in ICIVF. The initial investments are kept to A$20,000 (around RM50,000). Additional investment required is A$2,000.

A very interesting question to ask to fellow Malaysian: if you have RM50,000 ready for investment, do you prefer to invest in ASM, ASW2020, or ICIVF?

Capital Dynamics will conduct 2 road shows in Kuala Lumpur to explain about this international fund.

Venue: 16th Floor, Plaza First Nationwide, 161 Jln Tun HS Lee, KL.
Dates:

• 15 May 2009 (5.30pm - 7.30pm)
• 21 May 2009 (6.00pm - 8.00pm)
  

There are also road shows in Kota Kinabalu, Sibu, Kuching, Melaka, Penang and Singapore in early June 2009. Click here for the flyer and registration form.

Click here for more information about the iCapital International Value Fund.

6 Rookie CIO Mistakes in Vendor Management

It is one of the CIO roles to effectively manage the vendors to get the most for his/her business. May 2009 edition of CIO Insight magazine has highlisted 6 mistakes common to rookie CIO in vendor management.

1. Failing to Speak With One Voice

CIOs make the biggest mistakes in vendor management when too many cooks get in the kitchen without putting an executive chef in charge, resulting in no one is held accountable, communication breaks down and suppliers don’t get good direction.

2. Skipping the Homework

The CIO must be clearly understand what is required from the vendor, before expecting the vendor to understand the requirements. Groundwork such as developing written requirements and going through formal RFP process is crucial.

3. Fixating on Price

Pricing is very important, but there are other equally important factors in vendor selection. The CIO must understand to get the right people doing the right thing at the right price.

4. Using Too Few Suppliers

Too much reliance on single vendor could be disastrous, as the negotiation power will be deteriorated.

5. Only Dealing With Large Vendors

Your deal could looks small for large vendors, but could be precious for small vendors. Therefore, the smaller vendors might provide better service, and at the same time you might have greater leverage in negotiation with them.

6. Signing and Forgetting

Successful CIOs review their partners regularly to ensure everything is going according to plan and to make adjustments to agreements when necessary. Signing is just the beginning rather than an end.

From RON97 to RON95?

The Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister has just announced that the current RON92 petrol sold in the country will be replaced by RON95, and selling at the price of RM1.75 per litre. It will be made available nationwide by 1 September 2009.

The price of RON97 super-fuel will also be increased from the current RM1.80 per litre to RM2.00 from 1 September 2009 onwards, which is a rise of 11.11%. This is a drastic move to encourage the people to switch from current RON97 to RON95. It is argued that RON95 can be used in majority of the petrol-fueled cars on the road.

How will be the performance of RON95 compared with RON97? We have no idea yet until we have used the RON95 and benchmark it with RON97.

However, we can make reference to the comparison between Shell Super (RON97) and Shell V-Power (RON98). The information about Shell V-Power is RON98 can be confirmed in Shell Malaysia website (you can click the link to go to the "V-Power Fuel Composition" page in that website).

So what's the different between Shell V-Power (RON98) and Shell Super (RON97)? What will be the different between RON97 and RON95 then?

And no doubt, the Shell V-Power will also be priced higher by 1 September 2009, following the price increase of RON97.

It is a pity that we are told to downgrade the fuel we use in our car from RON97 to RON95, or have to pay a higher price to maintain the same after 1 September 2009. While the global world is moving forward, why we always have a feeling that we are moving backward?

The rise and fall of Borland

I have almost forgotten Borland if not the recent news about it being acquired by UK based Micro Focus for $75 million.

If you have been doing computer programming, especially since the 80's or 90's, there is a very high possibility that you used Borland's product before.

During the good-old DOS time, Borland had been famous with their Turbo Pascal, Turbo C, Turbo C++, SideKick, etc. When the Windows time come, Borland continued their popularity with Borland C++, Delphi, C# Builder, JBuilder, etc. They also produced software development tools for Linux, such as Kylix.

Beside being famous in programming tools, Borland had also been the company behind some office productivity products such as Paradox (vs MS Access), Quattro Pro (vs MS Excel), WordPerfect (vs MS Word). They had made attempt to combine these 3 products into Borland Office as rival to Microsoft Office. Later, this office productivity business was sold to Novell in the mid-90's.

During their time of glory, Borland also bought over Ashton-Tate, the company behind the once very famous database software -- dBase & Interbase.

Over the year, Borland gradually lost ground in their competition with Microsoft. Nowadays, Visual Studio succeed in engulfing their software development tools market, and Borland Office has long lost their market to MS Office.

The name of Borland faded in the 2000's, especially after the departure of their founder Philippe Kahn, and was almost forgotten by many programmers who once developing software with their superb products with nice Integrated Development Environment (IDE), especially during the DOS era.

Philippe continued to bring wonders to the world after his departure from Borland in the mid-90's. He has contributed to wireless devices data synchronization technology, invented the first camera phone, and is currently the CEO of Fullpower Technologies, a company focuses in converging life sciences, wireless technology, accelerometrics, nanotechnology and MotionX solutions.

National Career & Entrepreneurship Carnival 2009

Organised by Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) and managed by My Events Sdn Bhd, the National Career & Entrepreneurship Carnival 2009 (Karnival Kerjaya & Keusahawanan Kebangsaan 2009, K3G 2009) to be launched by the prime minister is targeting for the largest career and entrepreneur fair in the country entering the Malaysia Book of Record.

Theme: Realize Your Dream Job
Venue: Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC)
Date: 15- 17 May 2009
Time: 10 am - 7 pm
Dress code: Business casual
Admission: Free

This event provides exhibitors from GLC, corporate company and entrepreneur a great opportunity to meet face to face at one localized place with a variety of talented job seeker and aspiring entrepreneurs from all over the country. The exhibition will also serve as an exclusive platform to showcase exhibitors’ jobs which are in demand in the job market.

The floor plan for this event is as below:


Activities including:

• Resume Clinic
• Stage activities
• Internship corner
• On-the-spot interviews
• Consultations on career and enterpreneurship
• Career talk by industry experts and successful enterpreneurs

Click here for more information about the National Career & Entrepreneurship Carnival 2009.

Gold investment with passbook account

Gold is a kind of precious metal that is internationally recognised and accepted to be always interchangeable with cash based on the exchange rate in its own market. It is well-known to be hedge or safe haven against any economic, political, social, or currency-based crises.

Besides keeping the physical gold (in forms of coin, wafer, ornament, etc.), Malaysian can also invest in gold with passbook account in the way similar to passbook savings account with Maybank and Public Bank. The gold price offered by these 2 banks are pegged to international gold commodity prices in the market.

The benefit of investing gold with passbook account is that you don't have to keep the physical gold. This will save you from the hassle or risk of:

• storage cost (eg. keeping in a safe box)
• lost, theft, etc.

I have made a comparison between the Gold Savings Passbook Account (GSPA) of Maybank and Gold Investment Account (GIA) of Public Bank as below.



Generally, Public Bank trades with you in a smaller gap between the selling and buying price of the gold. This also mean that Public Bank sells to you at a lower price than Maybank, and buys from you at a higher price than Maybank, which is more beneficial to the investor.

However, Maybank also has some other advantages, such as:

• They have more branches nationwide available for you to make the gold transaction with them.
  
• They allow you to withdraw your gold in physical gold wafer or gold certificate format.
• They don't impose annual service fee even though your balance is below 10 grams.
• The minimum initial deposit and balance required is lesser.
  

The gold price has been in the rising momentum since 2001 until today. There is a nice website (http://goldprice.org) for you to check for current and historical gold price with charts.

Is now a good time to buy gold? What I can tell you is that now the price is at the historical high end of a long term bull. How long can this bull go further? You have to do your own homework.

Click here to check the gold rate of Maybank GSPA.

Click here to check for the gold rate of Public Bank GIA.

What can you do if your Ubuntu display screwed up

When I upgraded my Ubuntu Linux in my laptop from 8.10 (Intrepid) to 9.04 (Jaunty) using the "Upgrade to 9.04" option in Synaptic Package Manager, it didn't go smoothly.

After the packages download, upgrade, cleanup and restart, the login screen can't show up, and it jammed up in a distorted screen. My first tought was that the display driver or setting was not working well with the display hardware of the laptop.

Luckily, I managed to fix the problem within half an hour. And here is my solution:

• Press the Esc key during Grub bootup to bring up the kernel menu.
• Select the 2nd option "Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-11-generic (recovery mode)" to go to recovery mode.
• When the Recovery Menu show up, you can try to select "xfix - Try to auto repair graphic problems". However this didn't work for me.
• Therefore, I had to try another way and selected "netroot - Drop to root shell prompt with networking". I think you can also select "root - Drop to root shell prompt" as well.
• Key-in the root password, and you will enter to the root's shell command prompt.
• Key-in this command to manually configure the Xorg-server settings: "dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg".
• You will need to configure for the input devices (eg. keyboard) as well as the output devices (eg. display and monitor).
• When you get back to the command prompt, key-in "exit" to end the shell session and go back to Recovery Menu.
• Now, select "resume - Resume normal boot".
• If the display problem is fixed, you will see a beautiful reddish login screen with a stylish 3D Ubuntu logo on the bottom right.
• Welcome to Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope).

Cloud computing with Ubuntu Server Edition 9.x

One of the excitement from Ubuntu Server Edition 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) which just released on 23 April 2009 is new features in cloud computing.

Ubuntu Server Edition 9.04 provides 2 flavours of cloud, namely:

• Ubuntu on Amazon EC2 which uses the publicly available Amazon's Elastic Computing (EC2) cloud computing service.
• Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud for enterprises to build their own private cloud environment on their servers, which is powered by the Amazon EC2-like open source Eucalyptus system. Eucalyptus (Elastic Utility Computing Architecture for Linking Your Programs To Useful Systems) is a cloud system with an EC2-compatible API, elastic block storage (EBS) equivalent and an S3 compatible storage manager.

Cloud computing transforms traditional server infrastructure into a dynamic environment that expands and reduces capacity depending on requirements.

A cloud computing environment combines the resources of a group of servers together over a network. This group of servers is the cloud that provides access to resources on demand.



Adopting a cloud-computing strategy helps businesses conduct their core business activities with greater efficiency and flexibility. It enables greater utilisation of existing hardware while also providing the ability to handle peaks in usage. Thousands of virtual machines and applications can be managed more easily using a cloud-like environment.

Canonical has announced that the next version of Ubuntu Linux 9.10 (Karmic Koala) is planned to be very cloud oriented. As such, we can expect more in the cloud to come.

Click here to learn more about cloud computing from Eucalyptus' presentations and publications.

Click here for technical instructions to setup Eucalyptus in Ubuntu Server 9.04.

You might also be interested to read my article about cloud computing written in July 2008.

Will Metro Kajang repeat the history of TSH?

Several years ago, I made some big bucks with TSH (陈顺风资源，9059) and its warrant, when they ventured into palm oil business. By that time, it was still well-known as a cocoa products manufacturer then classified in the Industrial sector in KLSE.

TSH's earnings improved significantly when its palm oil business started to bring in revenue, and hence pushed up its stock price as well as its warrant price. Later, it was reclassified under the Plantation sector, and the rest is history.

Now, Metro Kajang (METROK 美景控股, 6114) well-known as a property developer in Klang Valley has also ventured into palm oil business since December 2007 by acquiring 15,942.60 hectares of land in East Kalimantan to plant oil palm. It might take them 3 years until 2011 before the palm oil business begins to contribute to its revenue, and now the time has already gone halfway of the milestone.

East Kalimantan in Indonesia is a strategic location for oil palm plantation as it is expected to have better yield per hectare, lower labour cost, etc. In fact, several public listed plantation companies in KLSE also expanded their plantation business to Indonesia over the past few years.

The 15,942.60 hectares land bank of Metro Kajang is considered small, compared with other public listed plantation companies, such as:

• ASIATIC (2291) - 80,000 hectares
• CEPAT (8982) - 10,300 hectares
• IJMPLNT (2216) - 29,797 hectares
  
• IOICORP (1961) - 169,450 hectares
• KLK (2445) - 210,000 hectares
• KULIM (2003) - 82,730 hectares
• TSH (9059) - 20,000 hectares
• SIME (4197) - 531,300 hectares

however, it is a good size to start with, and probably will be expanded in the future.

It is worth to note that although plantation is considered a new business to Metro Kajang, it is not new to their executive chairman Dato' Chen Kooi Chiew who already has 18 years of experience in that sector.

Unlike TSH (which once troubled by their cocoa business), the core business of Metro Kajang i.e. property development and management remains strong and dynamic. This business has never fail them since commencing over twenty years ago, as they have uninterrupted profit track record from day one. Therefore, the new plantation business is not expected to override their property business like TSH, but would be another good revenue generator beside the property business.

Beside that, Metro Kajang has other kinds of businesses, which contribute not as significant as their property business. That include furniture manufacturing (in China), money lending, lifestock farming and food processing.

In the short term, their lifestock farming and food processing business is seen to be affected by the current swine flu incident. This might cause some effect on their stock price performance, which might provide some good opportunity for continue accumulation. In the long term, we have seen Metro Kajang has been aggressive in buying more land banks for their property development, and the plantation business should start to bring in revenue from next year (2010) onwards. The importance of this new plantation business can be sensed from the cover page of their 2008 Annual Report.

Despite its low share price at RM0.90 only, Metro Kajang has an NAB per share of RM2.73, net cash per share of RM0.20, cash flow per share of RM0.34, and debt/equity ratio at 0.31 only. These mean that they are financially strong. With the prospected EPS of 16 sen for the coming year, the estimated PE ratio stands at 5.62 by today's closing.

Disclaimer: This article is intended for sharing of point of view only. It is not an advice or recommendation to buy or sell any of the mentioned stock counters. You should do your own homework before trading in Bursa Malaysia.

Paying income tax with online banking

If you are still required to pay for remaining tax after PCB deductions, the deadline to pay the tax is the same as the deadline to submit your BE Form, which is 30-April.

Currently, there are at least 3 banks providing the conveniece for you to pay income tax with their online banking facilities. The 3 banks are CIMB, Public Bank and Maybank.

Here is the procedure to pay your remaining tax with CIMBClicks.

• Login to your CIMBClicks account.
• Select "Pay Bills".
• Select "Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri (LHDN - Semenanjung)" from the Payee List. If your income tax account is with the Sabah or Sarawak branch, then select the LHDN payee account for the corresponding state instead of "semenanjung".
• Key-in your income tax account number as well as the amount of tax you want to pay.
• On the next screen, select "084 - Bayaran Ansuran Cukai-Individu" for Kod Bayaran.
• Key-in "2008" for Tahun Taksiran.
• Key-in "99" for No. Bilangan Ansuran.
• You need to request for TAC to complete the transaction.
• You will be charged 50 sen as bank commission for this payment.

Scrapping of 30% bumiputra quota for 27 sub-sectors

With the recent announcement by Prime Minister (and also Finance Minister) Najib Razak, there will be no more 30% bumiputra equity requirement for 27 sub-sectors in the service industry with immediate effect, which covers the health and social services, tourism services, transport services, business services and computer and related services.

The 27 liberalized sub-sectors are:

Computer and related services

• Consultancy services related to installation of computer hardware
• Software implementation services – systems and software consulting services; systems analysis services; systems design services; programming services and systems maintenance services
• Data processing services – input preparation servies; data processing and tabulation services; time sharing servies and other data processing services
• Database services
• Maintenance and repair services of computers
• Other services – data preparation services; training services; data recovery services; and development of creative content
  

Health and social services

• All veterinary services
• Welfare services delivered through residential institutions to old person and the handicapped
• Welfare services delivered through residential institutions to children
• Child day-care services including day-care services for the handicapped
• Vocational rehabilitation services for the handicapped
  

Tourism services

• Theme park
• Convention and exhibition centre
• Travel agencies and tour operators services (for inbound travel only)
• Hotel and restaurant services (for 4 and 5 star hotels only)
• Food serving services (for 4 and 5 star hotels only)
• Beverage serving services for consumption on the services (for 4 and 5 star hotels only)
  

Transport services

• Class C freight transportation (Private carrier license – to transport own goods)

Sporting and other recreational services

• Sporting services (promotion and organization services)

Business services

• Regional distribution centre
• International procurement centre
• Technical testing and analysis services – composition and purity testing and analysis services, testing and analysis services of physical properties, testing and analysis services of integrated mechanical and electrical systems and technical inspection services
• Management consulting services – general, financial (excluding business tax), marketing, human resources production and public relations services
  

Rental/Leasing services without operators

• Rental/leasing services of ships that excludes cabotage and offshore trades
• Rental of cargo vessels without crew (Bareboat Charter) for international shipping
  

Supporting and Auxiliary Transport Services

• Maritime agency services
• Vessel salvage and refloating services
  

This policy of 30% bumiputra equity requirement for companies listed publicly in Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE) and also for foreign companies that wish to operate in Malaysia has long be criticized by both local and foreign investors, and deemed as the major hindrance for them to invest and run business in Malaysia. It was also one of the major cause for certain existing investors to exit their business from Malaysia and gone to other places like Singapore, Vietnam, China, Thailand, etc.

Nevertheless, with effect from 17 June 2003, the 30% bumiputra equity requirement has been no longer applicable to all sub-sectors of manufacturing sector for foreign investors. It is good that another 27 service sub-sectors are free now.

Over the last decade, Malaysia has lost too much opportunities to neighbouring countries due to certain protective policies. This has been a barrier to the performance of KLSE as well as the economic growth of the country. I believe the bumiputra should have good wisdom to reason that instead of insisting on "guaranteed" 30% of a small cake, why not invite more investors to come in and make the cake grow bigger and bigger by releasing the restrictions on them? They might need to work harder to obtain a "non-guaranteed" 30%, but what you prefer? A "guaranteed" 30% of 100 or a "non-guaranteed" chance of 30% of 1000? Even in the worse case scenario, you only managed to get 10% of that 1000, it is still much much more better than the insisted 30% in the 100, isn't it?

Therefore, I view this move as a win-win-win situation, for the bumiputra, non-bumiputra, as well as the foreign investors. It would be better if the 30% requirement be totally scrapped for all sectors to bring back live to the KLSE as well as the economy activities.

IBM the loser in Oracle-Sun deal

Recently, IBM attempts to buy over Sun Microsystems for US$7 billion end up with nothing. However, this move might have catalysed Oracle to buy over Sun with a slightly higher price of US$7.4 billion or US$9.50 per share, which just materialized yesterday (20 April 2009) and becomes today's big news.

With this acquisition, Oracle is now extended its domains in IT field from a leading database, middleware and business applications player, to include operating system (Solaris), office suite (OpenOffice.org), application platform (Java), virtualization (VirtualBox), thin clients (Sun Ray), servers, processors & chips (SPARC), storage solutions, accessories, etc.

"The acquisition of Sun transforms the IT industry, combining best-in-class enterprise software and mission-critical computing systems," said Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. "Oracle will be the ONLY company that can engineer an integrated system - applications to disk - where all the pieces fit and work together so customers do not have to do it themselves. Our customers benefit as their systems integration costs go down while system performance, reliability and security go up."

Now, Oracle has the well diversified software and hardware capabilities covering almost every angle in the system integration aspect, to rival IBM business as IT giant. IBM is not only a loser in Sun acquisition, but also lost its competitive advantage with the emergence of another full-fledged giant competitor in the IT industry.

Meanwhile, by gaining the control to MySQL, Oracle can also dominate the database world with its enterprise-class Oracle DBMS popular for large scale systems, and MySQL popular for web applications and comparatively smaller scale systems. This will no doubt bringing direct impact to competitors such as Microsoft SQL, Sybase, etc. Again, IBM is a loser as its DB2 will face more fierceful competition.

The world's IT industry has no doubt somewhat shakened by this Oracle-Sun deal. Will there be more mergers and acquisitions, or perhaps alliances formation? Let's wait and see...

Make sure your tax exempted allowances are filed correctly in EA Form

In the latest revised EA Form for tax assessment year 2008 (Borang C.P.8A-Pin.2008), there are 2 columns for filing your allowances / perquisites / gifts / benefits provided to you by your employer.

Column to file taxable allowances / perquisites / gifts / benefits:
Item B.1 - Tip kasar, perkuisit, penerimaan sagu hati atau elaun-elaun lain.

Column to file tax exempted allowances / perquisites / gifts / benefits:
Item G - Jumlah elaun / perkuisit / pemberian / manfaat yang dikecualikan cukai.

Among the tax exempt items (not applicable to owner or executive director of the company) are:

• Perquisite (whether in money or otherwise) provided to the employee pursuant to his employment in respect of: past achievement award; service excellence award, innovation award or productivity award; or long service award provided that the employee has exercised an employment for more than 10 years with the same employer (up to RM2000 per annum).
  
• Gift of new personal computer and monthly broadband subscription fee (registered in the name of the employer) (in year 2008-2010)
• Petrol card, petrol allowance or travel allowance between the home and work place (in year 2008-2010, up to RM2400 per annum).
• Petrol card, petrol allowance or travel allowance and toll card for official duties (up to RM6000 per annum).
• Allowance or fees for parking
• Meal allowance
• Allowance or subsidies for childcare in respect of children (up to RM2400 per annum).
• Telephone, mobile phone, pager and Personal Data Assistant (PDA).
• Bills for telephone, mobile phone, pager and PDA registered in the name of the employee or employer.
• Employers’ own goods provided free of charge or at discounted value (up to RM1000 per annum).
• Employers’ own services provided free or at a discount provided such benefits are not transferable.
• Medical benefits exempted from tax are extended to include maternity expenses and traditional medicines such as ayurvedic and acupuncture.
• Interest subsidies for loans up to RM300,000 in respect of housing, motor vehicle and education loans.

Make sure your HR filed your tax exempted items in the correct place (item G) in your EA Form 2008. If they are filed under item B.1, you might end up paying extra tax which suppose can be exempted.

For more detail, please refer to the Explanatory notes to Borang BE [Malay version] [English version].

You might probably interested to read these articles as well:

• Up to RM300 income tax deductible sport items
• 2009 new income tax PCB deduction rate
• Downloadable documents, references and forms for 2008 income tax assessment

Up to RM300 income tax deductible sport items

Being proposed for National Budget 2008 (which unveiled on 7 September 2007) and included in the BE Form 2008 as tax deductible item D8C, an amount limited to a maximum of RM300 is income tax deductible in respect of expenses expended by the individual tax payer for the purchase of sports equipment for any sports activity as defined under the Sports Development Act 1997 (Akta Pembangunan Sukan 1997).

The sports equipment includes equipment with short lifespan such as golf balls and shuttlecocks, but excluding sports attire e.g. swimsuits and sports shoes.

So what are the activities considered and defined as sports in the Sports Development Act 1997? Here is the list:

• Archery
• Athletics
• Aquatics
• Automobile Sports
• Badminton
• Basketball
• Billiards and Snooker
• Body Building
• Bowling
• Boxing
• Cricket
• Cycling
• Equestrian Sports
• Fencing
• Foolball
• Golf
• Gymnastics
• Handball
• Hockey
• Judo
• Karate Do
• Lawn Bowls
• Netball
• Rugby
• Sepak Takraw
• Shooting
• Silat Olahraga
• Soft Tennis
• Softball
• Squash
• Table Tennis
• Tae kwan do
• Tennis
• Volleyball
• Waterski
• Weightlifting
• Wrestling
• Wushu
• Yachting

Reference: Sports Development Act 1997

You might probably interested to read these articles as well:

• Make sure your tax exempted allowances are filed correctly in EA Form
• 2009 new income tax PCB deduction rate
• Downloadable documents, references and forms for 2008 income tax assessment

TM promotional RM10/month package for Streamyx user

If you are a residential Streamyx broadband user, here is a good news for you.

Currently, TM is offering a RM10/month telephone package to their residential Streamyx users. By paying RM10/month, you will get:

• Unlimited free local calls to TM fixed lines
• Unlimited free national calls to TM fixed lines
• Flat rate of 30 sen/min to all mobile and other fixed lines

And when you subscribe to this RM10 Package, you will also get a free DECT cordless phone with LCD display.

This package is quite attractive as it can bring savings if majority calls from your home phone are to TM fixed lines (local and/or national, including faxes). However, note that the RM25 monthly fee is still applicable with normal Streamyx plan, and not applicable for Streamyx Combo package.

Note that this is an exclusive limited time promotion plan of TM valid from 1 April to 30 June 2009 only.

Click here for more information on the TM RM10 Package. It is advisible for you to read the Terms & Conditions page as well as the FAQs.