Hard reset Garmin Nuvi 255w GPS to factory default

In the Quick Start Manual of Garmin Nuvi 255w GPS, it stated that you can reset the unit by pressing the RESET button at its bottom. However, the RESET button is not found in my Nuvi 255w.

Additional information in the Owner's Manual stated that if RESET button is not found, slide the POWER key and hold it for more than 8 seconds will do the same, but I found out doing so will go to the touch screen calibration utility instead.

Another section in the Owner's Manual under the title "Clearing User Data" stated that holding your finger on the lower-right corner of the screen while turning on the unit and keeping the finger pressed until a message appear, that will allow you to delete all user-entered information.

I tried it and a message window pops up asking about "Do you really want to erase all user data?". There are 2 buttons to select, Yes or No. If you want to try this, make sure you've backup the data in your unit before answering to Yes.

So is the Clearing User Data be the same function as performing a hard reset to the unit? I don't have the confirmed answer yet.

Customize the speech of Garmin or TomTom GPS (both TTS and non-TTS)

Boring about hearing "recalculating" from your Garmin GPS and wanted to listen to something else, such as "oops, you don't follow my way"?

TurboCCC has come out with some interesting software tools for Garmin GPS users to easily customize the speech of their unit by hacking/modifying into the *.VPM voice files inside the /Garmin/Voice folder.

The tool to be used on Text-to-speech (TTS) voice file is called TTSVoiceEditor, and it can do the following:

• Change speech phrases like "recalculating" to something more enjoyable
• Control voice volume (level)
• Change voice rate (speed)
• Change the voice screen name
• Import/Export speech phrases from/to text files

Click here for more information and download of TTSVoiceEditor.

And to deal with non-TTS file, another tool called NonTTSVoiceEditor is used. It can:

• Split a Garmin VPM file into a serie of WAV files
• Split a TomTom CHK file into a serie of OGG files (Vorbis audio files)
• Preview and play WAV voice samples and phrases
• Merge them back into a VPM file

Click here for more information and download of NonTTSVoiceEditor.

Beside that, there is also a tool for you to replace some sound effects in Garmin GPS, such as during the picture click, the camera in sight dong-dong, the speed alert, etc. This tool will hack into the /Garmin/GUPDATE.GCD file in the GPS. It is called GUpdateMod.

Click here for more information and download of GUpdateMod.

TurboCCC has also produced some other tools such as the Extra_POI_Editor, TTS_Speech_Doctor, TomTom TTS, etc.

Microsoft prohibited from selling MS Word due to patent infringement!

A CNET news today reported about Judge Leonard Davis of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas has issued a permanent injunction that "prohibits Microsoft from selling or importing to the United States any Microsoft Word products that have the capability of opening .XML, .DOCX or DOCM files (XML files) containing custom XML.

In March 2007, the Toronto based plantiff, i4i sued Microsoft alleging that Microsoft voilated its 1998 patent (No. 5,787,449) for a document system that eliminated the need for manually embedded formatting codes.

In May 2009, a federal jury in Tyler, Texas, ruled that the custom XML tagging features of MS Word 2003 and MS Word 2007 infringed on i4i's patent and ordered Microsoft to pay $200 million in the case.

In Tuesday's ruling, Microsoft was also ordered to pay an additional $40 million for willful infringement, as well as $37 million in prejudgment interest. The order requires Microsoft to comply with the injunction within 60 days and forbids Microsoft from testing, demonstrating, or marketing Word products containing the contested XML feature.

I'm sure this will not be the end of the story. Let's see how Microsoft react on this.

Source: CNET News - Judge orders Microsoft to stop selling Word by Steven Musil.

How to set destination using Panoramio photo in Garmin GPS

Do you know that you can interestingly set your destination in Garmin GPS by selecting a photo of the location you want to go? The feature is called Garmin Photo Navigation.



You need to download the Panoramio photos from the Photo Navigation section in the Garmin Connect website at http://connect.garmin.com/photos.

I'll show you how to do that, step-by-step.

Ensure that your Garmin GPS device is connected to your computer with a USB cable, and that you have already installed Garmin Communicator Plugin Software in your computer.

Get your browser to go to the Garmin Connect Photo Navigation website.

You need to sign in your Garmin customer account if you haven't done so.

Look for Panoramio photos in your desired location by searching with the "Find photos" search. For example, key-in "Penang" to find photos around Penang.

You can zoom-in the Google Map to your convenient size. There might be more than one page of photos which you can switch between the pages with the "Photos" pagination bar on top of the Google Map.

Select the photos by click on them one by one. Click on the [+] button of the enlarged (selected) photos to put them in your selection list.

When you have done, click the "Send to Device" button to download the Panoramio photos to your GPS device.

Remember to also contribute some photos taken by you to Panoramio.com website.

The photos will be stored in the /Garmin/JPEG folder of your Garmin GPS device.

Now, switch your attention to your Garmin GPS device and go to "Where to? > Favorites > Panoramio Photos".

Select a photo and click the "Map" or "Go!" button. Have fun!

How to capture screenshots of Garmin Nuvi GPS

One of my reader asked about how I captured the screenshots of my Garmin Nuvi GPS. In fact, it is a built-in feature.

To enable screenshot capturing, go to Tools > Settings > Display > Screen Shot and change the setting from the default "Disabled" to "Enabled". You will then see a camera icon appear on the top right corner of the screen. Tap on it anytime and the screenshot of the current screen will be captured in a *.BMP graphics file stored in the /Garmin/scrn folder of your GPS navigator.

Just connect your GPS to your computer using a USB cable, and your GPS internal memory will be mounted as a remote drive for you to access its content. You can then copy over the screenshot files stored in the /Garmin/scrn folder.

Attended the AGM of ICAP and listened to Tan Teng Boo's talk

I attended the 5th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of iCapital.biz Bhd (ICAP, 5108) today 8-8-2009. This closed-end fund is very considerate to its shareholders to conduct the AGM on Saturday, so that working people don't have to take leave to attend it.

The AGM was held in Mandarin Oriental Hotel at the heart of Kuala Lumpur (KLCC). Hundreds of shareholders (and proxies) have attended the meeting, filling up all the seats. The major attraction is a special talk by Mr. Tan Teng Boo, the fund manager of ICAP, right after the AGM.

Mr. Tan has shared about the latest portfolio of ICAP and his rationale to choose those counters. He is bullish on Parkson's China and Vietnam business, Astro's joint-venture in India, etc. He is even bullish in F&N after their contract with Coca-Cola expired. He shared about his view on the reason of recent worldwide economy crisis, what is the real cause (the Lehman Panic), how will be the recovery process in his opinion, and where are we now. All the points are well supported by facts and figures, which shows that he has done numerous studies on his talking points.

Mr. Tan also enlighten us about the value investing way of stock buy/sell strategy. In the Q&A session, he answered some of the questions from his investors on why ICAP not applying the "cut lost" or "cut gain" strategy normally used by chartists, and how ICAP not trading based on price movement or market timing but based on fundamental studies. He also shared his viewpoint on the Malaysia market, US market, China market, India market, SEA markets, etc. It was really a fruitful discussion between ICAP's investors and the fund manager.

Inside the eco-friendly reuseable door-gift bag are:

• 2 most recent issue of iCapital.biz printed version newsletters (30-7-09 & 6-8-09).
• A nice feminine-shaped pen.
• 30% discount + free gift subscription form to iCapital.biz newsletter.

This 5th AGM of ICAP started at around 10am and ended by around 1.30pm. Mr Tan has taken about 2 hours for his informative talk, and a lot of investors have participated in the Q&A session.

I'm looking forward to attend the next AGM next year.

Click here to read another article about ICAP 5th AGM by another blogger.

Website to download free firmware and map updates for Garmin GPS navigator

Garmin provides free firmware update and maps update (if applicable) for their series of GPS navigator products.

Before you can perform the updates, here are the prerequisites:

• You need a suitable USB cable to connect your Garmin GPS to your computer.
• You need to have internet access.
• You need to create a user account and register your product in the Garmin customer support website.
• You need to download and install the Garmin Communicator Plugin Software to allow Garmin customer support website to be able to communicate with your Garmin GPS via your web browser.

After you login the Garmin customer support website and registered your GPS product, just go to the myDashboard tab and you'll find the section to update your firmware (software) as well as your maps that eligible for update with Garmin.

If your Garmin GPS is a localized Sing/Mal or India product, you can also download the update file from their Singapore customer support website which does not need to create any user account nor install the Garmin Communicator Plugin Software.

• Click here to go to Garmin localized products software update webpage.
• Click here to go to Garmin localized products free map update webpage.

Step by step instruction will be provided on how to perform the update.

Alternatively, you can also perform software update by using the Garmin WebUpdater application. This application will help you perform the update easily in a step-by-step manner.

As normally advised, always backup all the important content in the flash memory of your GPS before you perform any update to the software or to the maps. A copy-and-paste from the GPS flash memory to a folder in your computer will do.

Adding multiple maps in Garmin Nuvi 255w GPS

Theoretically, the Garmin Nuvi GPS navigator can be loaded with hundreds of map. The limit is on the maximum file size (about 2GB per file) and available storage memory.

The maps are stored in specific mapset files with *.img extension in the flash memory of the GPS unit. Each mapset file contains one or many maps in it. Beside that, the Garmin GPS navigator can also recognise and load up one additional mapset file from SD card residing in the "Garmin" folder and named as "gmapsupp.img".

Here are the mapset files supported by Garmin Nuvi 255w GPS navigator:

• gmapbmap.img - the default base map
• gmapprom.img - the primary mapset
• gmapprom1.img - the secondary mapset
• gmapoem.img - the OEM mapset that cannot be unselect by user (if it exist)
• gmapsupp.img - the supplemental mapset which you can have one in the GPS flash memory and another one in the attached SD card.

Therefore, the Garmin Nuvi 255w GPS supports up to 6 mapset files, including 1 in SD card. Normally new maps installed by the user will be stored in gmapsupp.img.

You will lost all the maps in the previous mapset file if it is overwritten by a new file with same filename. If you want to keep the existing maps, ensure that you store the mapset file with an unused filename (from the 5 filenames above). Alternatively, you can make use of special tools to merge new maps into existing mapset file.

You can view the name of your base map in Tools > Settings > System > About > Basemap.

You can view the name of maps in the other mapset files in Tools > Settings > Map > Map Info. There, you can tell the GPS to load the map by checking on its name, or not to use the map by unchecking it.

In case there are 2 or more non-overlaping maps available for the same location, the map with the highest priority number (defined in the map itself) will be used by the GPS.

Note that certain map which are locked by vendor need a 25 bytes unlock key stored in a *.unl file in the same folder and with the same name as the mapset file where the locked map is stored in.

You might probably also interested to read:

• Using GMapTool to combine multiple maps into one mapset file for Garmin GPS
• Using GMapTool with cGPSmapper to convert finalized gmapsupp.img back to MapSource maps

Accessing the built-in Diagnostic Utility in Garmin Nuvi 255w GPS

Just discovered that there is a "hidden" built-in Diagnostic Utility in Garmin Nuvi 255w GPS navigator.

You can access it by tapping on the battery icon on the upper right corner of the screen and hold for more than 5 seconds until the Diagnostic Utility come up. Here is how it looks like:

This built-in Diagnostic Utility allows you to see detail technical information of the GPS navigator and the attached SD card (if any). You can also use it to perform some test on its memory, voice, display, and other functions.

My Garmin Nuvi 255W GPS navigator

I have just bought a Garmin Nuvi 255W portable GPS navigator in PIKOM PC Fair II 2009 at the price of RM849. It is a SING/MAL unit which comes with new features such as Junction View, Lane Assist, etc.

Here are some useful information for those who are also interested in this model of Garmin GPS navigator. Note that this unit is a localized version sold in Malaysia and Singapore only.

In the packaging box, there is:

• The Garmin Nuvi 255W GPS navigator
• Vehicle suction cup mount
• Vehicle power cable
• Dashboard disk
• Quick start manual

Free gifts from vendor as PC Fair promotion:

• Screen protector film
• Garmin leather case
• USB cable

There is no complete user manual come with the box, but the full user manual in PDF format can be downloaded from Garmin website.

The following maps are preloaded in the GPS navigator:

• City Navigator Singapore/Malaysia NT v4.02
• Malsingmaps Malaysia/Singapore/Brunei NT 2009.5
• Thailand v9.0 EN (No Pain)

And I managed to install Malfreemaps v1.68 together with MFM SRTM Topo v1.02 available in http://www.malfreemaps.com/.

How do we know this is a SING/MAL unit which supports Junction View and Lane Assist?

• Underneath the packaging box, the SKU number should be 010-00718-69 and barcode labeled with "nuvi 255W, SING/MAL".
• In Tools > Settings > System > About screen, you should be able to see "SgMy Software Ver. 2.70".
• You can set the unit into simulation mode and travel through some major junctions around KL urban area to see how it works. Ask the vendor to demo to you on the unit that you're going to buy.
  

There are many ways to navigate and set destination in the Garmin Nuvi 255W GPS. You can set the location by address, telephone number, various points of interest (POI, such as those shown below), intersections, coordinates, etc.

This unit supports the "speak street name" feature, but you have to select a speaking voice that support for Text-to-speech (TTS) in order for this feature to function. There is one mandarin speaker voice which support TTS, but she will just spell out the name like "J-A-L-A-N ..." instead of pronouncing it as "Jalan ...". Anyhow, the American and British TTS are working well with Malaysian road names.

GPS gadget buying guide

The Global Positioning System (GPS) gadget has become one of the attraction in the recent PIKOM PC Fair II 2009 held in KL Convention Centre, and I have just purchased one.

Although most (if not all) of us can survive without using a GPS on travelling, GPS is no doubt a fun and handy device to guide our journey, because:

• It can help us to discover new paths that we never tried before.
• It can determine for us which is the fastest / shortest / fuel saving / most comfortable / ... path to destination.
  
• It can guide us to avoid certain paths, such as toll roads, traffic jam area, etc.
  
• It is extremely useful when travelling outstation or overseas, as we no longer need the traditional paper map, compass, ask people-on-street for direction, etc. (provided the GPS has the map of the place)
  
• It can alert us on danger road condition ahead, traffic limit, speed traps, point of attractions, etc.
• It can help us to easily locate and go to the nearest petrol station, restaurant, hospital, police station, etc. (especially during emergency)
  
• With it, we can join the interesting "geocaching" activity as our new hobby.
  
• And many more interesting things...
  

Here are my considerations when selecting the GPS:

1. Price - Yes, my first consideration is the pricing, as GPS is considered a "want" instead of a "need". I would not consider any GPS which cost above RM1,000. There are GPS gadgets that come with additional features such as bluetooth, multimedia (can play MP3, movie, etc.) which are beyond its basic function and make the unit cost higher, which I think we don't really need to pay for the price for those fancy things. However, we should think about getting the best of the price we are paying for, instead of just simply choosing a cheap unit which probably might disappoint us later.

2. Availability of maps - Without the maps, GPS is considered useless. Therefore, the GPS I choose must have many maps around the globe available for download or purchase when needed. Those maps must be actively developed and maintained. It would be even better if there are maps available for free.

3. Clear display and voice - We rely on the GPS screen and voice to guide our way. Therefore, the screen display should be clear, sharp and non-glare during daytime and night time. The voice also need to be clear and loud enough. Availability of voice in native languages such as Cantonese, Hokkien, Hakka, etc. is a plus.

4. Handy size - I personally like the 4.3" widescreen make of GPS. The screen is big enough for us to see clearly, while this size is still portable and can be put in our pocket. The 3.5" units seems to be small, and the 5" units are a little bit bulky.

5. Accuracy - The GPS must be very accurate in positioning the location. At the same time, the map must also be accurate in plotting the location. The variation between the actual location and GPS shown location must not exceed 5 meters.

6. Respond speed - The GPS must be fast in signaling with the satellites, perform fast recalculation on changed route, inform us early on turning and POIs ahead, etc. This is very much depends on the GPS chipset and the processor speed in the unit. It would be very annoying if your GPS respond is slow.

7. Stable signaling - The GPS must be fast as well as stable in contacting and receiving signals from the satellites. Conditions of lost contact with satellites should not occur unless the unit is in-house or heavily covered from the sky. Recovery after the obstacle is cleared (such as coming out from a long tunnel) must be quick.

8. Navigation and searching features - The GPS should be easy to use, with handful of good navigation and searching features.

9. Memory - The larger the memory, more maps and records can be kept. The internal memory should be at least 2GB, with support of external memory such as SD card.

10. Cool features - Cool features such as 3-D map, junction views, lane assist, pronounce road names, etc. are most welcomed as long as the price of the unit is still within budget.

11. Battery life and ease of charging - The battery should be able to last for at least 4 hours. It would be nice if the GPS can be charged from computer using USB cable, as the USB cable is one of the cheapest charging cable (cost around RM15 only) compared with car charger, household AC charger, etc.

12. Self-service - I would like to be able to upgrade the GPS firmware, upload maps, manipulate maps, etc. with software or tools that is easy to use and made available for the users.

13. Warranty & service - The vendor must be known to provide good warranty and service support, including maps updating services in the future.

14. Free gifts - Free maps (and subsequence updating service of the maps), pocket casing, screen protector film, etc. are nice to negotiate for.

15. Extra features - The least considerations are those extra features such as picture viewer, photo viewer, multimedia functions, calculator, currency converter, etc.

Based on the above, I've chosen my Garmin Nuvi 255w (SING/MAL unit) which cost me RM849 in the PIKOM PC Fair II 2009.

Remove your contact info from the TM Directory service

TM has set tomorrow (31 July 2009) as the last day to submit a form to remove your contact info from the TM Directory service free of charge. If you don't submit the form, your name, address(es) and fixed telephone number(s) will be exposed to the public in TM Directory service, including the TM White Pages Directory and the 103 directory assistance service.

Before this exercise, TM used to charge for a fee to customers who wanted to remove their contact info from the TM Directory service. There is no indication from TM whether they will resume the charges for the forms submitted after 31 July 2009.

You can click here to download the TM X Directory Confirmation Form, which you need to unzip the downloaded archieve file, open it with OpenOffice.org, fill it up and output the completed form as PDF file (or open with Microsoft Word, fill it up, and use a 3rd party PDF converter to convert the completed form to PDF), then email to tmxd@tm.com.my for submission.

Click here to read the respective news release from TM.

The Edge chosen 65 Malaysian Websites That They Like

The Edge Malaysia Business & Financial Weekly has included a pullout about "65 Malaysian Websites That We Like" in their March 2009 first week edition.

Those 65 sites were picked according to the aesthetics, content, functionality and also personal preference of their journalists.



And here is the listing of the 65 websites:

• http://www.adoimagazine.com/
• http://www.airasia.com/
• http://asia.cnet.com/
• http://asiaparttime.com/
• http://www.astro.com.my/
• http://www.axcess.com.my/
• http://www.babyjaya.com/
• http://www.bharian.com.my/
• http://www.bluehyppo.com/
• http://www.btimes.com.my/
• http://www.cari.com.my/
• http://www.cimbclicks.com.my/
• http://www.digitallibrary.my/
• http://www.emmagem.com/
• http://elevyn.com/
• http://www.estate123.com/
• http://www.flowers.com.my/
• http://www.friedchillies.com/
• http://www.halaljournal.com/
• http://www.gua.com.my/
• http://www.hardwarezone.com.my/
• http://www.hotcourses.com.my/
• http://www.iamfreelancer.com/
• http://www.iproperty.com.my/
• http://www.jobsdb.com.my/
• http://kclau.com/
• http://www.lelong.com.my/
• http://www.lowyat.net/
• http://www.malaysiaairlines.com/
• http://www.malaysiabrides.com/
• http://www.malaysiakini.com/
• http://www.maybank2u.com.my/
• http://www.mis-asia.com/
• http://www.mobileworld.com.my/v2
• http://www.money3.com.my/
• http://www.motortrader.com.my/
• http://www.mph.com.my/
• http://ms.wikipedia.org/wiki
• http://www.myeg.com.my/
• http://my.jobstreet.com/
• http://www.myresipi.com/
• http://www.nst.com.my/
• http://www.paultan.org/
• http://www.penangtuapui.com/
• http://www.popteevee.com/
• http://www.positivemoneyideas.com.my/
• http://www.redesignmalaysia.com/
• http://www.sabahtourism.com/
• http://www.sarawaktourism.com/
• http://www.shashinki.com/
• http://www.skmm.gov.my/
• http://www.smeinfo.com.my/
• http://www.studymalaysia.com/
• http://www.syokkahwin.com/
• http://www.thebookaholic.blogspot.com/
• http://www.theedgemalaysia.com/
• http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/
• http://www.thenutgraph.com/
• http://www.thestar.com.my/
• http://www.timeoutkl.com/
• http://www.travelmalaysiaguide.com/
• http://www.virtualmalaysia.com/
• http://www.what2seeonline.com/
• http://www.wwf.org.my/
• http://www.youthsays.com/

How many of the above are also in your favourite?

Website to look for latest home loan packages information

Do you know what is the most attractive home loan package in the market now? Which bank to approach to?

The Money3 website has the information you are looking for. They have compiled and made available quite a complete home loan package information of most if not all the banks in Malaysia.

Here are some of the useful web pages in their website that you might like to bookmark on:

• List out all the home loans of all banks, and allow you to perform sorting to the list, as well as compare side-by-side on 3 of the packages in the list
• Online Home Loan Finder tool
• Recommended home loans based on the loan type/nature
  
• Select a bank and list out the home loans offered by the bank (made available in ThinkProperty website)

There are many more useful online tools, articles, commentaries and useful loan related resources in their website. As such, they are no doubt one of the "65 Malaysian Websites That We Like" selected by The Edge Weekly and published in March 2009 their printed edition.

Website to check for latest price of IT products in KL

Which website do you use to check for the latest price of your desired IT products in Klang Valley? I believe many already know about Lowyat.NET which you can download the pricelist of several shops in Lowyat Plaza.

However, I found that some of the pricelist in Lowyat.NET are not instantly updated. There is a better place, which I make use to check for the latest price of my desired IT products nowadays, in the Price Guides section of the Malaysia HardwareZone Community website. There are more pricelist available for download than Lowyat.NET, and the pricelist there are updated on weekly basis.

Now that the 2nd PIKOM PC Fair for 2009 is around the corner, you might have something in mind that you want to buy, and would like to check for their current price before go shopping in the PC Fair. I would recommend you to visit the Price Guides section of the Malaysia HardwareZone Community website and get the latest pricing information available there.

The 2nd PIKOM PC Fair for 2009 is coming

Once again, the PIKOM PC Fair will be held nationwide as follow:

31 July - 2 August 2009 (11:00am - 9:00pm)

• KL Convention Centre, Kuala Lumpur
• Village Mall, Sungai Petani - Kedah
• Dewan Perbandaran Taiping - Perak
• Batu Pahat Mall, Batu Pahat - Johor
  

7 August - 9 August 2009 (11:00am - 9:00pm)

• Penang International Sports Arena, Penang
• Mahkota Parade Melaka, Melaka
• Sabah Trade Centre, Kota Kinabalu
• Berjaya Megamall, Kuantan - Pahang

13 August - 15 August 2009 (11:00am - 9:00pm)

• KB Mall, Kota Bharu - Kelantan
• Terengganu Trade Centre, Kuala Terengganu - Terengganu

14 August - 16 August 2009 (11:00am - 9:00pm)

• Persada Johor International Convention Centre, Johor Bahru
• Stadium Indera Mulia, Ipoh, Perak

In conjunction with this periodical major ICT event in Malaysia, there will also be an online game fair in KL Convention Centre.

Click here for more information and the layout plans of the coming PIKOM PC Fair II 2009.

Note that the ICT Fair in University Utara Malaysia (UUM) to be held on 29 - 31 July 2009 has already been postponed due to suspected A(H1N1) issue.

Sekisui retractable clothes drying rack

I just bought a modern looking Sekisui retractable clothes drying rack (model no. SFU-300WB) cash and carry for RM300 from their new showroom in Bandar Puchong Jaya.

Despite being made in China, it is a product of the Japanese Sekisui Jushi Corporation (积水树脂株式会社) which is said to have more than 50 years of establishment and pretty famous in Japan.

This Sekisui SFU-300WB retractable clothes drying rack is suitable for landed house, and can be extended from retracted length of about 4.5 feet until up to about 8 feet. When fully extended, it can hang quite a lot of clothes with its 3 hanging areas. It is very easy to assemble just by connecting the stainless steel rods together and tighten with the 6 screws provided in the packaging. It is pretty light weight (about 6kg) and easy to carry, its X-shape legs are foldable and can lean by the wall when not in use to save space.



It comes with 1 year warranty and said to be very durable which can last for many years at outdoor. It can bear up to 20kg of clothes.

Their Puchong showroom has other intersting models of clothes drying rack for landed house as well as highrise unit. For example, I found the SHO-300 model very interesting as it is transformable into different shapes. They also have indoor laundry racks, closet organizers, kitchen organizers and other products made on stainless steel rods.

Bursa Malaysia to reduce tick size effective 3 August 2009

There is a sudden news that effective 3 August 2009, Bursa Malaysia will reduce the structure of its tick size (minimum price variation between the stocks' buy and sell bid).

It is said that this move is to "in line with the current practice by global developed markets and more importantly, to create market depth, enable price discovery and boost liquidity in the local equities market."

This change will affect both the stocks as well as the equity exchange-traded funds (ETFs) listed in KLSE.

The new structure is as below:





I can foresee that the smaller tick size will make the price movement of stocks with higher price tend to be slower and more stable than before. It will be more difficult for them to hit a limit up or limit down, especially when the volume is high.

Perhaps there will be more counters going for split or bonus issue to lower down their stock price in order to maintain a lively price movement.

How will this impact on KLSE market sentiment? What will be the reaction of investors and traders? Soon we will be able to see.

World Top 10 Retirement Havens for 2009

The International Living magazine has produced a special report to introduce the World's Top 10 Retirement Havens for 2009.

Those selected are places that can offer us a lower cost of living and with a huge improvement in our quality of life.

Excerpt: "An overnight stay in a private hospital in Mexico for as little as $35...the world’s number one retiree program in Panama...the best value for you second home dollar in Uruguay...live in the lap of luxury on a pensioner’s budget in Ecuador...hire a maid for $120 per month and enjoy beautiful Caribbean beaches in Nicaragua...enjoy the convenience of speaking English and banking privacy in Belize...experience la pura vida in Costa Rica...discover why European expats have been flocking to Brazil...learn where to find the best health care system in the entire world—France...and finally, hear about la dolce vita (at affordable prices) in Italy. "

And the world's top 10 retirement havens for 2009 are:

• Ecuador - living large on little money
• Mexico - live right on the beach for pennies on the dollar
• Brazil - 5,000 miles of beaches, fantastic weather, stately colonial cities, and mountains with spring-fresh weather
• France - good food, good wine, haute couture, a good climate, unspoiled countryside, glittering culture, excellent health care, colorful traditions and history
• Panama - you will never find yourself bored
• Nicaragua - one of the most beautiful countries in the Americas
• Italy - beautiful sceneries and quality health services
• Costa Rica - tropical climate, modern cities, Caribbean beaches, Pacific coastline, rainforests, lush valleys, and mountains
• Uruguay - First-world infrastructure and Third-world prices
  
• Belize - living and doing business made easy

"Broaden your horizons and you can dramatically change the way you live—for the better. "

Click here to read the full report on World Top 10 Retirement Havens for 2009 and find out more about the beauty of those places.

The 2009 Quality of Life Index reveals best country to live in

Founded in 1979 by Bill Bonner, the International Living magazine is a monthly publication for subscribers detailing the best places in the world to live, retire, travel, and invest.

In order to reveal the world’s best places to live in 2009, they have ranked and rated 195 countries by benchmarking on the following considerations: cost of living, leisure & culture, economy, environment, freedom, health, infrastructure, risk & safety and climate.

For the fourth year running, France comes first in the index, and Switzerland comes in second place for the second year.

Click here to read the article from International Living and find out why France and Switzerland are chosen.

Among the ASEAN countries, Singapore ranked the 80th, Malaysia 90th, Brunei 113th, Thailand 134th, Philippines 136th, Vietnam 143th, Indonesia 145th, Cambodia 154th, Myanmar 162nd and Laos 178th.

The top 20 are:

• France
• Switzerland
• United States
• Luxembourg
• Australia
• Belgium
• Italy
• Germany
• New Zealand
• Denmark
• Malta
• Sweden
• Uruguay
• Lithuania
• Czech Republic
• Norway
• Austria
• Netherlands
• Canada
• United Kingdom

Click here for the complete 2009 Quality of Life Index with detail scoring info.

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:

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• Data center applications
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• Cloud infrastructure

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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.