Hiding your Internet web surfing trace with UltraSurf

UltraSurf is a very small program (less than 500kb) that will automatically change your Internet Explorer's setting to make use of anonymous proxy server in the United States. It is free. It also has add-on for Firefox browser.

It can be used to hide/obfuscate your computer's location, and be a workaround to overcome possible web censorship and blockage.

Any website you connected with your web browser is able to trace your computer's IP address, and use it to find out your location. What UltraSurf do is to connect your computer to their server, and then connect to the destination website with the IP address of their server instead of yours.

This will make any websites you surf on or browse into, to trace that you are coming from United States instead of your actual location.

You can see how the IP address is traced by visiting to http://whatismyipaddress.com/. See what's the different before and after you run UltraSurf.

UltraSurf also has options to allow you to remove your trace in your computer (what webpages you have visited) by deleting the cookie and history information automatically the moment you exit the program.

Click here to find out more about UltraSurf and to download it.

When piracy becomes a major economic activity with a stock market

Somalia, a country located at the "Horn of Africa", is strategically controlling the vessel traffic in Gulf of Aden which joins the Red Sea (with the famous Suez Canal at the other end) which forms the important water transportation between Europe and Asia. (map below)

Somali people have been suffering from civil war since the last decade, and now, the warriors, fishermen, and perhaps farmers have found a new "lucrative business" to take advantage of their geographical location. They become pirates and hijack merchant ships, then making multi million dollars of big bucks from ransom.

The Somali pirates are heavily armed. And to maintain their "operation cost" and supplies, they have even opened a 24x7 "stock market", which started with 15 "maritime companies" and grown to 72 in just 4 months time.

The stock market is opened to everyone, and they accept "investment" in the kind of cash, weapons or useful materials.

The following "testimony" is very real, from a 22 years old young Somali lady: "I am waiting for my share after I contributed a rocket-propelled grenade for the operation. I am really happy to have made $75,000 in only 38 days since I joined."

It would be more shocking to hear the Haradheere town's deputy security officer spoken to reporter: "Piracy-related business has become the main profitable economic activity in our area and as locals we depend on their output."

Somali pirates have no doubt become today's marine version of Robin Hood in the eyes of their local people. They are even a very modernize version, equipped with AK-47 and rockets (rather than bows and arrows), and operating a stock exchange.

What do you think about this?

I feel that if the rich-poor divide around the globe become worse and worse, more and more such "Robin Hood story" will come into reality, and that might also be a cause for World War III.

Using Google Public DNS to speed up web access

Google has just introduced their Public DNS service as part of their ongoing effort to make the web faster.

Since Google's search engine already crawls the web on a daily basis and in the process resolves and caches DNS information, they wanted to leverage their technology to experiment with new ways of addressing some of the existing DNS challenges around performance and security.

Google Public DNS is offered freely to the general public to:

• Provide end users with an alternative to their current DNS service. 
• Help reduce the load on ISPs' DNS servers by taking advantage of their global data-center and caching infrastructure.
• Help make the web faster and more secure.

By making use of Google Public DNS, the benefits and enhancements are:

• Performance: In addition to load-balancing user traffic to ensure shared caching, Google Public DNS implements "smart" caching to increase the speed of responses.Click here for more technical detail on how Google Public DNS can improve web browsing performance.
• Security: DNS is vulnerable to various kinds of spoofing attacks that can "poison" a nameserver's cache and route its users to malicious sites. Google has implemented several security measures in their DNS servers. Click here for more technical detail on how Google Public DNS is protected from security threats and mitigations.
• Correct results: Google Public DNS never blocks, filters, or redirects users, unlike some open resolvers and ISPs. 

The Google Public DNS IP addresses are as follows:

• 8.8.8.8
• 8.8.4.4

Click here for detail information about how to configure your computer to make use of Google Public DNS.

My Aurora AS424C cross-cut paper shredder

I found this round of PIKOM PC Fair does not have much difference from last round in August 2009. In fact, the RAM module price has risen quite a lot. Things which have price drop are portable harddisk, GPS navigator, etc.

Anyhow, managed to bought myself an Aurora AS424C cross-cut paper shredder at the price of RM99. It looks small and cute, very portable and easy to carry. It is not so heavy too, weights only 2.3kg.

Its main purpose in my household will be to shred old statements of credit cards, bank slips, phone bills, etc. before disposal to dustbin.

It is able to feed in up to 4 pieces of A4 paper, folded. In fact, the papers need to be folded because the inlet length is shorter than A4 width.

Equipped with strong steel cutters, it shreds pretty fast and can even feed in small paper staples without problem. It is also able to awesomely shred credit card. But it is not designed to shred CD/DVD, and there are other higher end models (with higher price) which are able to do so.

This is the result after shredding. The stripes are actually not too fine, so if you shred vertically, can still read some words on the stripes. It is more advisible to shred the papers horizontally, so that the sentences will be cut into multiple stripes and rendered to be unreadable.

This shredder comes with some safety features, such as:

• It will not start-up if the unit head is not placed properly in its translucent wastebasket.
• It will auto switch off when its motor detected to be overheated due to long operation.
• It has a REV switch to reverse the feeding and roll out the paper. You can still save the unshredded part.

At the cost of RM99 with 1 year warranty, I find this paper shredder good to have for lightweight usage at home.

Findings from Synovate PAX Survey 2009

In its 13 year, Synovate PAX Survey is the most comprehensive study of affluent group of elite adults in Asia Pacific region, which are from the higher income percentile of the society in the surveyed metropolitan areas.

The survey tracks media and digital consumption, prosperity, and influence across 11 markets from Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, to Australia. It is conducted year-round and Synovate spoke with 20,245 affluent consumers in Asia Pacific to get the 2009 results.

The table below shows the percentage of respondents in 5 of the surveyed metropolitan possess or answered "yes" to the corresponding items of interest.

The result reveals that:

• Affluent consumers across Asia Pacific continued to spend even during the recession in 2008-2009.
• Hong Kong respondents are still keen in the investment markets, with 51.2% invested in stock, bond and securities.
• Meanwhile, only 16.8% of respondents from Kuala Lumpur invested in stock, bond and securities.
• Online 10% of respondents from Kuala Lumpur enjoy a cultural lifestyle in live theaters and/or museums, and 51.6% will go to the cinema to watch (usually commercial) movies.
• Media advertising doesn't seem to do well in gaining trust from the respondents. However, branding is pretty important as many prefer to buy well known brands (but surprisingly, not in the case of Hong Kong).
  

You might want to...
Download PAX 2009 Hong Kong factsheet (PDF 86Kb)
Download PAX 2009 Korea Fact Sheet (PDF 70Kb)
Download PAX 2009 Singapore factsheet (PDF 70Kb)
Download PAX 2009 Kuala Lumpur Fact Sheet (PDF 65Kb)
Download PAX 2009 Philippines Fact Sheet (PDF 65Kb)

Top 10 technology trends for 2010

The following are 10 most significant technology trends for 2010, based on a survey conducted by Ziff Davis Enterprise Research with almost 1,200 technology and business managers.

1. Green Computing and Energy Efficiency
It is observed that commitment has been greatly increased from 2009 to 2010 across IT manufacturers (in producing Green IT products), data centres and end-users.

2. Public and Private Cloud Computing
IDC expects spending on IT cloud services to grow almost threefold, reaching $42 billion by 2012.

3. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
Beside server virtualization, VDI has begun to make inroads into the enterprise, but it is found to be more complex to implement than server virtualization. 2010 might be a turning point.

4. Mobility, Telecommuting and Virtual Meetings
With the vast penetration of mobile computing devices such as BlackBerrys, iPhones, netbooks, etc., concerted with the availability of higher wireless bandwidth, business nowadays has become more and more mobile in nature. Control and security are the main concerns though.

5. Centralization, Standards and Governance
This is something new in the list from 2009's, resulting from the alarm triggered from the “Great Recession” and increasingly fragmented computing resources.

6. Knowledge Sharing, Business Intelligence and Social Networking
No doubt Web 2.0 has transformed the landscape and made knowledge sharing a reality. Organizations start to recognize the tremendous value in Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other services.

7. Security, E-Discovery and Business Continuity
There are growing need in this area, but cost remains a big issue.

8. Advances in Application Infrastructure
Open source has made its way and sustain its momentum, playing a more and more important role in today's computing world.

9. Investments in Hardware Infrastructure
Virtualization has brought the impact to hardware infrastructure consolidation. It is believed that Intel’s Nehalem processor (1st CPU optimized for virtualized environments) will accelerate the servers refresh cycle. Beside virtualization, Fibre Channel over Ethernet and solid-state drives are also stimulus to this trend.

10. Collaboration, Workflow and Productivity
The extension of productivity and workflow to the mobile environment is a huge trend. We are rapidly moving beyond e-mail into content and collaboration applications.

* The top 10 IT trends above are referenced from an article written by Samuel Greengard in the Baseline Magazine.

You might be interested to explore how the above have progressed from the Top 10 IT trends for 2009 I posted here about a year ago.

I observed that this 2010 trends is organically evolved from the 2009's list, and come closer to actual adoption, implementation and usage, as the technology matured.

Winter Solstice - the important festival day right before Christmas

Every year right before Christmas, there is an important oriental festival day fall on the Winter Solstice (冬至) which pronounced as Dong Zhi and directly translated to "extreme of winter". The Winter Solstice in 2009 is 22 December.

In Northern Hemisphere where China is located, the Winter Solstice is the day with shortest daylight (about 10 hours) and longest night (about 14 hours), which is the critical day of "Ying", when the solar celestial longitude reaches 270 degree and the sun has the lowest position in the sky. After this day, the daytime will become longer and longer, as more and more "Yang" re-entering. In Chinese saying is "阴极之至，阳气始生，日南至，日短之至，日影长之至".

After this day, the weather in the Northern Hemisphere will become cooler and cooler, until 9 x 9 = 81 days later, which is the last day of winter when the Chinese farmers start cultivating their farms again.

The Winter Solstice is an important festival to Chinese, which has equal significance with the Chinese New Year.

Similar to Chinese New Year, the Winter Solstice Festival is also a time for the Chinese family to get together, and eat the balls of glutinous rice named as Tang Yuan (汤圆) symbolizing "reunion". The Korean also practises similar culture too.

Traditionally, all the family members will make the Tang Yuan together using glutinous rice powder. Nowadays, ready made Tang Yuan is also available in the supermarket/hypermarket, and modern family just buy instead of making themselves. The Tang Yuan is boiled in water (with some brown sugar or salt, and pandan leaves) before consume in bowl.

Beside celebrated by oriental people, the Winter Solstice is celebrated globally, and the festival day might differ a little bit from the Chinese. Some Western Winter Solstice Festival fall on the Christmas Eve, and celebrated together with the Christmas Festival.

In fact, the celebration of Winter Solstice in mankind has longer history than Christmas, and people like Isaac Newton believed that the date of Christmas was selected to correspond with the Winter Solstice.

Taxable amount from company car, petrol card, driver, etc.

If your employer provides you a company car, petrol card and/or car driver, you will notice that an amount will be treated as Benefit-In-Kind (BIK) in your EA Form, which is taxable.

The following table shows how the value of such taxable BIK value is calculated.

The annual BIK value of driver provided is RM7,200.

For example, if you are provided with a Honda Accord 2.4 which its cost is fall under the range of RM150,001-RM200,000, and you are also provided with a petrol card but no driver, your taxable BIK income will be RM7,000 + RM1,800 = RM8,800.

If your tax rate is 27%, then you will need to pay RM8,800 x 27% = RM2,376 for this BIK in your income tax. (Note: the maximum personal income tax rate will be reduced to 26% from assessment year 2010 onwards.)

This amount is normally already divided and deducted in your monthly PCB deduction.

Maximize your 2009 personal income tax deduction

Now we still have until 31 December 2009, which is less than one month time, to utilize and maximize any of the following income tax relief and/or deduction items for 2009.

• EPF contribution and life insurance premium (max RM6,000)
• Education and/or medical insurance premium (max RM3,000)
• Skim Simpanan Pendidikan Nasional (max RM3,000)
• Parent's medical expenses (max RM5,000)
• Annual medical check-up (health screening) for yourself, spouse and/or children (max RM500)
• Course fees for technical, vocational, industrial, scientific, technology, law, accounting, Islamic financing trainings at tertiary or postgraduate level (max RM5,000)
• Books, magazines, journals and other similar publications, either printed or electronic format, excluding newspaper (max RM1,000)
• Purchase of new computer, applicable once every 3 years (RM3,000)
• Sport equipments for any sport activity defined in Sports Development Act 1997 (RM300)
• Donations to approved institutions (max 7% deduction from aggregate income)
• Interest expended to finance purchase of residential property, with S&P signed between 10 March 2009 and 31 December 2010, and the residential property is not rented out (max RM10,000)

Note that if you subscribed for the deferred annuity retirement insurance scheme, you will get an additional RM1,000 relief under Section 49(1) of Income Tax Act 1967. Otherwise, the maximum relief under this category will remain as RM6,000 only. (applicable to assessment year 2010)


Do remember to keep all the relevant receipts for tax assessment purpose.

Malaysia Employment Outlook & Salary Guide 2009/2010 from Kelly Services

The Malaysia Employment Outlook and Salary Guide 2009/2010 from Kelly Services reveals that there is increasing demand in telecommunication, Web 2.0 development, call centre, and some other fields.

It is observed that these fields generally registered a 3% increase in minimum and maximum salary, despite the dampen economic climate during the survey period.

Among the highlighted hot jobs are:

• Credit manager
• Finance manager - investment
• Head of charge cards
• Head corporate credit risk
• Senior customer service officer
• Call centre team leader
• Finance & admin executive
• Safety officer
• Sales manager
• Head of channel management
• Business development manager
• Senior HR manager
• Compensation & benefits specialist
• Recruitment manager
• Help desk analyst
• Software engineer
• Unix specialist
• Logistic coordinator
• Warehouse manager
• Purchasing manager
• Head of quality
• Senior project manager
• Sales engineer
• Civil engineer

Click here to download the Malaysia Employment Outlook and Salary Guide 2009/2010.

You might probably also be interested to read on:

• Result of Robert Walters Global Salary Survey 2009
  
• Result of ZDNet Asia IT Salary Benchmark 2009
• JobsDB Compensation and Benefit Survey Report 2009

Garmin releases Malaysia Audio v2.20 for Nuvi 205/ 205W/ 255W/ 760/ 765 free update

Garmin has released Malaysia Audio v2.20 for Sing/Mal version of Nuvi 205/ 205W/ 255W/ 760/ 765.

This update will replace the /Voice/Malaysia__.vpm file in the GPS storage and will improve voice guidance of Malay language. The new file size will be increased to 1,550kb from the previous 1,197kb.

Click here to download the installation file Malay_voice_update.exe which is 2,020kb in size.

Garmin releases MalSingMaps Malaysia/Singapore/Brunei NT 2009.40 for free update

Garmin has made available MalSingMaps (MSM) Malaysia/Singapore/Brunei NT 2009.40 for free update now. The update file SgMyMal_2009.40.exe has the size of 164,515kb.

The installation program will update gmapprom1.img, gmapprom1.unl and SGMYMAL.JCV in your Garmin GPS navigator.

During the installation process, you'll be asked for the unlock key. The key is stored in the existing gmapprom1.unl file in your Garmin GPS navigator, which you can open with Notepad or any text editor. Just copy and paste the key to the installer when asked.

The size of SGMYMAL.JCV has increased to 199,587kb from the previous 199,430kb (for MalSingMaps NT 2009.30).

Version highlights:

• Synchronize to Malsingmaps v3.09
• Add toll road information
• Add more speed limit and lane information

Click here to download the installation file of MalSingMaps Malaysia/Singapore/Brunei NT 2009.40 from Garmin server.

Using Avidemux to rotate video movie in Linux/BSD/Solaris/Mac/Windows

Recently, I wrote about "using free software to turn/rotate/flip video movie" which can be done with 2 Windows based applications namely Windows Movie Maker and Free Video Flip and Rotate.

Now I am going to write about Avidemux, which can do the same video rotating function, and is multi-platform (can run in Linux/BSD/Solaris/Mac/Windows). Being GNU GPL licensed, you can also install and use Avidemux for free.

To rotate a video, open the video file. Then, change "Copy" in the Video section to one of the video format of your choice.

After that, click on the "Filters" button.

Double click the "Rotate" option under the Transform filter, and select the rotation degree. You can click the "Preview" button to see how it is going to look like.

Close the Video Filter Manager when you are done. Save the video with a new filename and you will get the rotated video.

Click here to go to the website of Avidemux.

If you are using Ubuntu Linux, you can probably install Avidemux with Synaptic Package Manager.

Using free software to turn/rotate/flip video movie

Certain video taken by digital camera or mobile phone might be displayed at 90 degree rotated on your monitor. Don't worry, you can make use of some free tools to turn it back to normal orientation (instead of turning your neck to watch the video).

Method 1: Using Windows Movie Maker

Windows Movie Maker that bundled in the Windows operating system is pretty feature rich, and is able to rotate the video by 90, 180 or 270 degree, as well as flipping (mirroring) vertially or horizontally.

You need to firstly open the original video file, then drag it to one of the box in the storyboard bar. After that, right click on the box and select "Video Effects...". You can pick and add the rotate effect from the list.

To save the rotated video, pull down the File menu and select "Save Movie File...". Follow the instruction and you will get a new rotated video file either saved in .WMV or .AVI format.

Method 2: Using Free Video Flip and Rotate

If you find Windows Movie Maker way of rotating video to be tedious, or Windows Movie Maker is unable to open and/or process your video file, you can download and use the Free Video Flip and Rotate utility.

This utility is very straight forward, and supports a vast variety of video format.

You just need to specify the source (input) video file, and the output file, then click on the conversion button (which allow you to rotate and/or flip the source video). Then click the "convert" button and you will get a new .AVI file.

Click here to go to the download page of Free Video Flip and Rotate.

You might also be interested to read about:

• Using Avidemux to rotate video movie in Linux/BSD/Solaris/Mac/Windows
  

Using JumboMem memory server to share RAM of multiple computers across network

If you need to run a memory-hungry program (eg. high resolution 3D animation renderer) that requires 1TB of memory, how should you run it?

As presented in the paper of Scott Pakin and Greg Johnson in 2007 IEEE International Conference on Cluster Computing titled Performance Analysis of a User-level Memory Server, JumboMem is an innovative open source Linux application which is the 1st entirely user-level memory server that enables unmodified sequential and also multi-threaded applications (as in version 2.0) to directly access all of the memory in a cluster of computers.

The goal of JumboMem is simple but very powerful, which is to improve the performance of memory-hungry applications by replacing accesses to a slow paging device (a disk) with accesses to fast RAM in other computers located across a high-speed network.

And there are some beauty in this middleware worth mentioning:

• No administrative access is required. All you need is an ordinary account on any Linux cluster. If you can run an MPI program you can run JumboMem.
  

• Your applications don’t need to be modified. Even binaries are okay. You can also run Perl, Python, PHP and other scripting languages.
• It is very scalable and proven to work with hundreds of nodes combining terrabytes of RAM.
  

Click here for more explanation, information and download of JumboMem the spectacular memory server.

10 taboos that managers/leaders should never say

The following are translated and summarized from an article with the title of "管理者最不应该说的十句话" which believed to be originated from the China Baidu blogosphere.

Below are the 10 taboos that managers/leaders should never say, but quite common to hear them saying.

1. "Not my business" - as a manager, you have your share of responsibility on every big and small matter in the company. Even though when it is totally out of your responsibility, you should graciously provide guidance to demonstrate your liberal-mindness and courtesy. If you have spoken this to your subordinates, your image might be easily subverted. If you have spoken this to your peers, it will cause conflict and misunderstanding. If you have spoken this to your boss, you might have annoyed him/her.

2. "Why do you all..." - before you start questioning others, think about any mistake on your own, and how much effort you have put in. Sometimes, be tolerant to others' mistake is an encouragement for them to improve. Using a series of "why" to launch attack on people might just end up with a series of answer just to tackle your "why". It might be better for solving the issue if you ask question like "Why didn't I collaborate well with you all? Where you need my help?".

3. "How I got scolded from above, I'll do the same to you" - one of the function of manager is to bridge the information from the top to the bottom, but you should convey the message effectively instead merely passing on the whole thing. To the top, you should be responsible and get the thing done. To your subordinates, you should attempt to motivate and show your support. The right thing you got to do is to be courageous to take on the pressure from the top, show your responsibility, and ease the tension of subordinates.

4. "I have no way to..." - the capability of a manager, in certain respect, is measured by the ability in problem-solving. Only emphasizing on objective reasons and not aggressively manoeuvre whatever resource in your hand will only show your helplessness and setback to your boss and subordinates. You have to believe that solutions always outnumbered the problems, and group wisdom can tackle the hardest moment.

5. "I say no means no" - this is a very egocentric discourse which does not provide relevant explanation to fact, and is hard to convince others. The situation can be worsen when we don't base on fact, and no open for discussion. In fact, even if the opinion is wrong, there is no harm to listen to it, and correct it accordingly. Making decision sidedly could be a sign of dictatorship which nobody like.

6. "Just do what you say" - this sounds like angry words or irresponsible remark. When getting into controversy and your opinion not accepted, saying so will make the listeners sense that you have no point. Instead, you should communicate all your idea clearly, in a cool manner.

7. "I can always take action on..." - this is a very stubborn discourse that make others feel uneasy. Trying to overwhelm others will only derogate your image and plant the seeds of hatred. Remember to pay respect to others.

8. "You are so stupid" - ridicule, satire, sarcastic discourse will hurt others' esteem and feeling. This will cause your subordinates to on the surface listen to you and act according to your command, but in reality they are in the state of perfunctory. This is very harmful to productivity and work quality.

9. "No, it is out of my ability. Let the capable one do it" - If you try to avoid or contradict assignment with this discourse, or to ridicule others to hide out your inner panic, it shows that you don't have sense to accept challenge. By showing this attitude, you are not qualified as manager (anymore).

10. "All is good", "pretty good" - vague recognition is lack of sincerity and cannot serve to inspire or motivate, as people just doesn't like insincere flattery. Therefore, verbal recognition and praise should be timely, rightful and specific. To praise timely and appropriately is a skill that all leaders must learn.

CRN 25 Most Influential Executives of 2009

CRN has selected the 25 Most Influential Executives of 2009, who are believed to have changed the computing landscape with aggressive channel sales expansions, blockbuster acquisitions, breakthrough cloud computing initiatives and strong sales even in the midst of the biggest downturn in the economy since the Great Depression.

They are:

• Mark Hurd, Chairman, CEO and President, Hewlett-Packard
• John Chambers, Chairman and CEO, Cisco Systems
• Larry Ellison, CEO, Oracle 
• Ben Bernanke, Chairman, Federal Reserve  
• Enrique Salem, President and CEO, Symantec 
• Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft 
• Rob McKernan, Senior Vice President and President North America, APC by Schneider Electric 
• Sam Palmisano, Chairman and CEO, IBM 
• Paul Maritz, President and CEO, VMware 
• Eugene Kaspersky, CEO, Kaspersky Lab 
• Kevin Murai, President and CEO, Synnex 
• Paul Otellini, CEO, Intel 
• Greg Spierkel, CEO, Ingram Micro 
• Michael and Dan Schwab, Co-CEOs, D&H Distributing 
• Tally Liu, Chairman and CEO, Newegg 
• Rory Read, president and COO, Lenovo 
• Ursula Burns, CEO, Xerox 
• Rance Poehler, President, Panasonic Computer Solutions
• Eva Chen, Co-founder and CEO, Trend Micro 
• Michael Dell, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Dell 
• Joe Tucci, CEO, EMC 
• William McCracken, Interim Executive Chairman, CA 
• Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple 
• Dave DeWalt, President and CEO, McAfee 
• Steve Luczo, Chairman, President and CEO, Seagate 
  

Click here to learn more about the CRN's 25 Most Innovative Executives of 2009 and detail explanation of why the above are selected.

CRN Top 25 Most Innovative Executives Of 2009

CRN has selected the Top 25 Most Innovative Executives of 2009, who are believed to have put big profits into solution provider pockets with breakthrough products and channel programs that cover the most explosive emerging technology markets.

They are:

• Stephen Cho, Director of Google Apps Channels, Google (Web 2.0/utility computing)
  
• Steve Munford, CEO, Sophos (security)
• Michael Klayko, CEO, Brocade (computer network)
  
• Evan Williams, CEO, Twitter (social networking)
  
• Steven Chang, President, Asus (netbook)
  
• David Farr, CEO, Emerson Electric (green IT solution)
  
• Danny Windham, CEO, Digium (VoIP)
  
• Bill Gross, Co-founder and Secretary Treasurer, EFolder (SaaS)
  
• Bob Cagnazzi, CEO, BlueWater Communications (value added solution provider)
• Gavin Garbutt, Co-Founder, President and CEO, N-Able (managed service provider)
• Peter Cannone, CEO, OnForce (outsourcing services)
• Christopher Dean, Chief Strategy Officer, Skype (Internet telephony)
• Mike Lazardis, President and Co-CEO, Research In Motion  (mobile wireless solutions) 
• Mont Phelps, CEO, NWN (system integrator)
• Adam Selipsky, Web Services Vice President, Amazon.com (online retail)
• Jen-Hsun Huang, President and CEO, Nvidia (3D graphics processor)
• Lars and Jens Rasmussen, Wave Design Developers, Google (Google Wave online communications)
• Joel Allen, Founder, President and CEO, AllenPort (360-degree GPS solution)
• Mark Shuttleworth, Founder, Ubuntu (Linux distribution) 
• Rick McEachern, Co-founder and Chairman, LongJump (cloud computing platform)
• John Kish, President and CEO, Pano Logic (virtualization)
• Michael Gold, Founder and CEO, Zlago (SaaS)
• Sridhar Vembu, Founder and CEO, Zoho (online business applications)
• Juan Santana, CEO, Panda Security (antivirus)
• Craig Schlagbaum, Vice President, Level 3 Communications (telco channels)

Click here to learn more about the CRN's Top 25 Most Innovative Executives Of 2009 and detail explanation of why the above are selected.

Malaysia Most Valuable Brands (MMVB) 2009 by 4As in collaboration with Interbrand

The Malaysia's Most Valuable Brands (MMVB)is a brand valuation and benchmarking of high performing Malaysian brands by The Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies (4As) in collaboration with Interbrand.

There are 3 brands fell off the 2009 list:

• Proton
• MAA
• Ogawa

There are 2 new brands enter into the 2009 list:

• Alliance Bank
• Premier

The 5 biggest winners are:

• Sime Darby (+82.6%)
• Padini (+20.2%)
• RHB Bank (+13.8%)
• Sin Chew (+13.5%)
• AirAsia (+8.7%)

The 5 biggest losers are:

• Malaysia Airlines (-61.3%)
• TV3 (-43.3%)
• Maybank (-42.5%)
• Kurnia (-29.4%)
• Resorts World Genting (-22.5%)

The Malaysia's 30 most valuable brands in 2009 are:

• Public Bank (6.593b)
• Maybank (5.374b)
• CIMB (5.245b)
• Celcom (3.993b)
• Parkson (3.740b)
• Resorts World Genting (3.464b)
• DiGi (3.129b)
• Astro (3.023b)
• Sime Darby (2.992b)
• Petronas (the listed Petronas Dagangan & Petronas Gas) (2.649b)
• Perodua (2.644b)
• Hong Leong Bank (2.591b)
• Giant (2.244b)
• AmBank (761.327m)
• YTL (739.754m)
• Malaysia Airlines (708.391m)
• RHB Bank (691.255m)
• TV3 (586.922m)
• AirAsia (411.068m)
• The Star (371.398m)
• JobStreet.com (313.475m)
• Dutch Lady (276.400m)
• Padini (244.634m)
• Sin Chew (215.768m)
• Affin Bank (198.998m)
• Alliance Bank (195.330m)
• Kurnia (139.329m)
• Premier (111.303m)
• Sunway City (108.452m)
• Bonia (96.559m)

Do you invested or plan to invest in any of the above Top 30 MMVB?

Click here to visit the MMVB website.

You can read more about each and every of the above Top 30 MMVB 2009 in the 48 pages special pull-out of The Edge weekly dated 23 November 2009.

Best Global Brands 2009 rankings by Interbrand

Interbrand has released their Best Global Brands 2009 report on 17 September 2009.

Food and fashion are the 2 main performers in 2009, while financial got the hardest hit.

There are 7 brands fell off the 2009 list:

• Merill Lynch
• AIG
• ING
• Hennessy
• Marriott
• Motorola
• FedEx

The 10 biggest winners are:

• Google (+25%)
• Amazon.com (+22%)
• Zara (+14%)
• Nestle (+13%)
• Apple (+12%)
• H&M (+11%)
• Ikea (+10%)
• Wrigley (+10%)
• Danone (+10%)
• Heinz (+9%)

The 10 biggest losers are:

• UBS (-50%)
• Citi (-49%)
• Harley-Davidson (-43%)
• American Express (-32%)
• Morgan Stanley (-26%)
• HSBC (-20%)
• Starbucks (-16%)
• Sony (-12%)
• Dell (-12%)
• Lexus (-12%)

The top 30 in 2009 brand value are:

• Coca-cola (68.734b)
• IBM (60.211b)
• Microsoft (56.647b)
• GE (47.777b)
• Nokia (34.864b)
• McDonald's (32.275b)
• Google (31.980b)
• Toyota (31.330b)
• Intel (30.636b)
• Disney (28.447b)
• HP (24.096b)
• Mercedes-Benz (23.867b)
• Gillette (22.841b)
• Cisco (22.030b)
• BMW (21.671b)
• Louis Vuitton (21.120b)
• Marlboro (19.010b)
• Honda (17.803b)
• Samsung (17.518b)
• Apple (15.433b)
• H&M (15.375b)
• American Express (14.971b)
• Pepsi (13.706b)
• Oracle (13.699b)
• Nescafe (13.317b)
• Nike (13.179b)
• SAP (12.106b)
• IKEA (12.004b)
• Sony (11.953b)
• Budweiser (11.833b)

Click here to read more about the Best Global Brands rankings by Interbrand

Online Customer Service (OCS) website of mobile operators (Digi / Maxis / Celcom / Yes)

Do you use a mobile phone? If yes, are you aware about the Online Customer Service (OCS) website of your mobile service provider?

In fact, all major mobile operators in Malaysia (Digi/Maxis/Celcom/Yes) have their free OCS website accessible by all their prepaid and postpaid customers.

Among the services available in the OCS website are:

• Manage account detail (such as contact info, etc.)
• View and print itemized bill statement (including prepaid account)
• Pay bill online using credit card
• Check for SIM card PUK code (required to unblock a SIM card with too many wrong password retries)
  
• Make change to account plan
• Subscribe/unsubscribe to certain value added services (VAS)
• Change IVR settings (PIN, language, etc.)
• ... and many more.
  

To access Digi OCS, go to https://www.digi.com.my/ocs/

To access Maxis OCS, go to https://www.maxis.com.my/ecs/

To access Celcom OCS, go to https://onlinecustomerservice.celcom.com.my/application/wss/

To access to Yes OCS, go to https://www.yes.my/myselfcare/

I notice that many people are unaware about the existence of their mobile operator's OCS website, or not making use of it. Perhaps this article can bring some awareness to such free service available on the web.

Auspicious dates for house warming, open house, party, gathering, etc. in 2010

Here is the list of auspicious dates in 2010 for organizing and hosting meet-up with friends and/or relatives (会友), which is produced based on the Chinese almanac Tong Shu.

The dates are applicable for house warming, open house, home party, gathering, and any other similar functions to meet up with friends and/or relatives.
 

 
Bear in mind that although the Tong Shu is a compilation of Chinese astrology and calendaring studies gathering wisdom of thousands of years, we should use it wisely and rationally, but not be too superstitious on it.

Related articles:

• Auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in 2010
• Inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2010
• Auspicious dates for signing contract, register for marriage, etc. in 2010
• Auspicious dates for moving to new house/office in 2010
• Auspicious dates for opening business in 2010
• Auspicious dates in 2010 for getting a baby
• Auspicious dates for renovation in 2010
  

Auspicious dates for renovation in 2010

Here is the list of auspicious dates for renovation in year 2010, which is produced based on the Chinese almanac Tong Shu.

Bear in mind that although the Tong Shu is a compilation of Chinese astrology and calendaring studies gathering wisdom of thousands of years, we should use it wisely and rationally, but not be too superstitious on it.

If you are going to renovate your house, don't forget to visit the "home idea" section of my blog to find out some of my sharing there.

Related articles:

• Auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in 2010
• Inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2010
• Auspicious dates for signing contract, register for marriage, etc. in 2010
• Auspicious dates for moving to new house/office in 2010
• Auspicious dates for opening business in 2010
• Auspicious dates in 2010 for getting a baby
• Auspicious dates for house warming, open house, party, gathering, etc. in 2010
  

Managers, are you prepared for your next position?

Dr. Arthur Langer who is the senior director of the Center for Technology, Innovation and Community Engagement at Columbia Uniersity has thrown out several analytic questions for managers and/or senior management people to assess how prepared they are to continue moving on to their next position, either inside or outside their current organization.

Here are the questions:

• Do you spend enough time with the business? (beside your own domain such as technical...)
• Who is your replacement? (are you trapped in your job because you do it too well?)
  
• Do you know your individual weaknesses? (do you have good staff that compliment your weaknesses?)
  
• Where is your organization vulnerable? (are you serious in continuous improvement?)
  
• Are you involved with corporate social causes? (which you can get more attention and value to the management)
  
• Are you involved with getting new clients? (are you playing a key role in driving major business opportunies?)

With these strategical questions entered your mind, you are more prepared to move on for your next higher position in your career.

Auspicious dates in 2010 for getting a baby

Here is the list of auspicious dates in 2010 for getting a baby (求嗣), which is produced based on the Chinese almanac Tong Shu.

The dates have good element(s) to embro/faetus. Traditionally, the dates are referred for conception planning (making love and expecting a baby to the family). Nowadays, people also make reference to them for Caesarian delivery of new born.

Bear in mind that although the Tong Shu is a compilation of Chinese astrology and calendaring studies gathering wisdom of thousands of years, we should use it wisely and rationally, but not be too superstitious on it.

Related articles:

• Auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in 2010
• Inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2010
• Auspicious dates for signing contract, register for marriage, etc. in 2010
• Auspicious dates for moving to new house/office in 2010 
• Auspicious dates for opening business in 2010
• Auspicious dates for renovation in 2010
• Auspicious dates for house warming, open house, party, gathering, etc. in 2010
  

ESRI Thailand Street Map (TSM) NT v10.0 EN / TH for Garmin is released

The ESRI Thailand Street Map (TSM) NT v10.0 for Garmin is released and available in both English and Thai language.

Enhancements in this version include:

• Added more than 1,000 images of new Junction View
• Updated approximately 500,000 Point-of-Interests (POIs) for the whole country that have been either opened and closed from the past year by actual field survey
• Added and updated about 10,000 kilometers of road data
• Added the exits in Highway Mode for major roads, not just the highways
• Added entrances and exits on major buildings and landmarks
• Added local voice navigation for all 4 regions of Thailand (for compatible devices)
• Added about 10,000 of new telephone numbers
• Improved map data quality
• Miscellaneous improvements

 Known issues to this version of TSM:

• Some of the functions including the address search, junction view, etc. only work in the Thai language version of the map.
  
• Searching for a place by using the “near…” button function might cause certain model of GPS to unexpectedly shutdown or reboot by itself

Have you signed on to the 1billionhungry petition?

Are you aware that there are 1 billion people live in chronic hunger now?

30 or more countries are currently experiencing food emergencies. At the rate of every 6 seconds, 1 child in the world die from starvation.

In the effort to defeat hunger, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has setup the 1billionhungry - Petition to End Hunger website in conjunction with the Hunger Summit to be held on 16-18 November 2009 in Rome, Italy.

"Ending hunger is the humanity's top priority, change will follow," urged FAO.

The global food insecurity situation has worsened and continues to represent a serious threat for humanity. With food prices remaining stubbornly high in developing countries, the number of people suffering from hunger has been growing relentlessly in recent years.

“The silent hunger crisis — affecting 1/6 of all of humanity — poses a serious risk for world peace and security. We urgently need to forge a broad consensus on the total and rapid eradication of hunger in the world,” FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf comments.

Don't wait. Please visit to http://www.1billionhungry.org and sign on to the "I AGREE" petition now!

 

Auspicious dates for opening business in 2010

Here is the list of auspicious dates for opening business in year 2010, which is produced based on the Chinese almanac Tong Shu. It can be applied to new business opening or reopening of business after a break/holiday.

The highlighted dates are right after the celebration of Chinese New Year.

Bear in mind that although the Tong Shu is a compilation of Chinese astrology and calendaring studies gathering wisdom of thousands of years, we should use it wisely and rationally, but not be too superstitious on it.

Related articles:

• Auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in 2010
• Inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2010
• Auspicious dates for signing contract, register for marriage, etc. in 2010
• Auspicious dates for moving to new house/office in 2010
• Auspicious dates in 2010 for getting a baby
• Auspicious dates for renovation in 2010
• Auspicious dates for house warming, open house, party, gathering, etc. in 2010
  

Auspicious dates for moving to new house/office in 2010

Here is the list of auspicious dates for moving to new house/office in year 2010, which is produced based on the Chinese almanac Tong Shu.

Bear in mind that although the Tong Shu is a compilation of Chinese astrology and calendaring studies gathering wisdom of thousands of years, we should use it wisely and rationally, but not be too superstitious on it.

If you are going to move to a new home, don't forget to visit the "home idea" section of my blog to find out my sharing on mortgage, renovation, furnitures, electrical appliances, pest control, etc.

Related articles:

• Auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in 2010
• Inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2010
• Auspicious dates for signing contract, register for marriage, etc. in 2010
• Auspicious dates for opening business in 2010
• Auspicious dates in 2010 for getting a baby
• Auspicious dates for renovation in 2010
• Auspicious dates for house warming, open house, party, gathering, etc. in 2010
  

Inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2010

I have posted the list of auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in 2010 recently, and here is the reverse, namely the inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2010. The list below is produced based on the Chinese almanac Tong Shu.

If you are concerned, then should avoid getting married on the listed days above, especially for those born in the year of snake. Note that the dates iterate every 12 days.


You might have noticed that unlike the previous years, the mid-autumn festival day of year 2010 is indeed an inauspicious day for wedding/marriage.

Bear in mind that although the Tong Shu is a compilation of Chinese astrology and calendaring studies gathering wisdom of thousands of years, we should use it wisely and rationally, but not be too superstitious on it.

Related articles:

• Auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in 2010
• Auspicious dates for signing contract, register for marriage, etc. in 2010
• Auspicious dates for moving to new house/office in 2010
• Auspicious dates for opening business in 2010
• Auspicious dates in 2010 for getting a baby
• Auspicious dates for renovation in 2010
• Auspicious dates for house warming, open house, party, gathering, etc. in 2010
  

Auspicious dates for signing contract, register for marriage, etc. in 2010

Here is the list of auspicious dates in year 2010 for signing contract, signing offer letter, register for marriage, receiving religious baptism, and other similar agreement-related activities. It is produced based on the Chinese almanac Tong Shu.

Note that 14 February 2010 which is the Saint Valentine's day, is also one of the auspicious dates in the list. That day is also the 1st day of Chinese New Year. Hence it is auspicious to register for marriage on that day, except for couple which either one of them was born in the year of Cow.

Another interesting auspicious date is 10 October 2010, which can be written as 10-10-10.

Bear in mind that although the Tong Shu is a compilation of Chinese astrology and calendaring studies gathering wisdom of thousands of years, we should use it wisely and rationally, but not be too superstitious on it.

Related articles:

• Auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in 2010 
• Inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2010
• Auspicious dates for moving to new house/office in 2010
• Auspicious dates for opening business in 2010
• Auspicious dates in 2010 for getting a baby
• Auspicious dates for renovation in 2010
• Auspicious dates for house warming, open house, party, gathering, etc. in 2010
  

Cancelling the Touch n Go Zing Card

Today I would like to share my experience in cancelling the Touch 'n Go Zing Card.

I have been using the Maybank Touch 'n Go Zing Card for several years, until recently I decided to switch over to CIMB Touch 'n Go Zing Card.

The switching process involves applying a new Zing card from CIMB and cancelling the old Zing card with Maybank.

The reasons for the switch are:

• I plan to cancel my Maybank credit card.
• The auto-reload fee of CIMB Zing card would be cheaper in long run.

For example, if you use about RM200  Touch 'n Go value per month. In a period of 6 months, if you use Maybank Zing card, you will need to reload 12 times, and the total fee is RM2 x 12 = RM24.

If you opt for RM200 per reload in CIMB Zing card, you will only need to reload 6 times, and the total fee is RM2 x 6 = RM12.

The saving of using CIMB Zing card rather than Maybank Zing card is 50%!

And here is the procedure to cancel the Touch 'n Go Zing card:
1. Cancel the card with your bank. Call their call centre.
2. Cancel the card with Touch 'n Go. Call 03-76285115.
3. A RM5 processing fee will be charged for the cancellation. It will be deducted from the stored value in your Zing card.
4. Your Zing card will be blocked from further usage.
5. The remaining money in your Zing card will be refunded by Touch 'n Go to your credit card within 30 days.

Auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in 2010

Here is the list of auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in year 2010 (year of Tiger), which is produced based on the Chinese almanac Tong Shu. (Click the image to enlarge)

The dates highlighted in pink are considered even more auspicious.

You might aware that 10 October 2010, which can be written as 10-10-10, is among the auspicious dates. Another interesting date is the Saint Valentine's day which fall on 14 February 2010 and is a Sunday. That day is also the 1st day of Chinese New Year. You can expect many couples will get married on that auspicious day.

Bear in mind that although the Tong Shu is a compilation of Chinese astrology and calendaring studies gathering wisdom of thousands of years, we should use it wisely and rationally, but not be too superstitious on it.

Related articles:

• Inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2010
• Auspicious dates for signing contract, register for marriage, etc. in 2010
• Auspicious dates for moving to new house/office in 2010
• Auspicious dates for opening business in 2010
• Auspicious dates in 2010 for getting a baby
• Auspicious dates for renovation in 2010
• Auspicious dates for house warming, open house, party, gathering, etc. in 2010
  

Strengthening Your People Skills In The Workplace workshop by Casey Tee

Individuals with excellent interpersonal skills rise to the top – in their careers, in their organizations and in life! You’ve probably seen it happen time and again.

Take 2 people with similar skills and knowledge, but one of them has enviable people skills while the other’s interpersonal skills are only mediocre. Which one gets ahead faster and goes further? You know the answer to that one — no contest! What you may not know is that effective interpersonal skills can be learned – just like any other skill.

The ability to build effective professional relationships, to strike up instant rapport, to communicate with tact, and to make a memorable impression are nothing more than a collection of techniques that you can learn and cultivate.

To be conducted by Mr. Casey Tee, Strengthening Your People Skills in the Workplace is an intensive new workshop that provides you with ways to gain the essential people skills you need to push ahead in your career.

This workshop is...
Organized by: Training Zone Dot Com Sdn Bhd
To be conducted by: Mr. Casey Tee
Date: 12 & 13 January 2010 (Tuesday & Wednesday)
Venue: Grand Dorsett Subang Hotel, Kuala Lumpur
 
Click here for more information about the Strengthening Your People Skills in the Workplace workshop.

Click here for more information about the trainer, Mr. Casey Tee.

The top 10 recommendations in Lonely Planet Best in Travel 2010 guidebook

The world's largest travel guide book and digital media publisher Lonely Planet has released their 208 pages Best in Travel 2010 guidebook, and you can find it in Amazon.com online bookstore.

Being the 5th in their annual collection of the best places to go and best things to do for the year ahead, this traveller's guidebook highlighted 850 trends, destinations, journeys and experiences for year 2010.

"Malaysia is a clever choice for travellers on the lookout for a bargain”, they commented in the guidebook.

And here are their picks:

Top countries:

• El Salvador
• Germany
• Greece
• Malaysia
• Morocco
• Nepal
• New Zealand
• Portugal
• Suriname
• United States

Top regions:

• Alsace, France
• Bali, Indonesia
• Fernando de Noronha, Brazil
• Goa, India
• Koh Kong Conservation Corridor, Cambodia
• Lake Baikal, Russia
• Oaxaca, Mexico
• Southern Africa
• The Lake District, England
• Southwest Western Australia

Top cities:

• Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
• Charleston, United States
• Cork, Ireland
• Cuenca, Ecuador
• Istanbul, Turkey
• Kyoto, Japan
• Lecce, Italy
• Sarajevo, Bosnia
• Singapore
• Vancouver, Canada

8 common technology capabilities that IT organization needs

The technology capabilities that IT organization needs might form a very wide and deep list, varying based on the business strategies in place.

Richard Brennan, managing director of Denver-based technology strategy and advisory firm Tipperary Partners, has come out with a list of 8 common technology capabilities for our reference.

1. Operational: Expert in operating systems, networks, data centers; scaling them efficiently while appropriately managing risks.
2. Development: Expert in leveraging the appropriate technology to code and deploy complex systems.
3. Innovative: Expert at introducing technologies and processes.
4. Project management: Expert at managing and delivering complex projects within budget and timeframe.
5. Architectural: Expert in designing reliable, scalable and extensible applications and systems.
6. Data management: Expert at collecting, managing, organizing and providing access to data.
7. Process: Expert in establishing and managing operational and business processes.
8. Agile: Expert in reacting quickly to the changing technical/business environment.
   

This list is good enough for organizations to use as reference to determine and define technology capabilities of their own need. It is also a good evaluation/assessment list for both employers and employees.

Bear in mind that we might not be able to master in all of them. It is better to pick at most three to four items in the list and excel in them.

Are you willing to buy Maxis IPO for RM5.20 at PE 17?

Maxis, after privatized and delisted for some times, is coming back to KLSE again with a new IPO.

According to the latest news, they will not be issuing new shares, but will offer 2.25 billion shares, representing 30% of its existing share capital. The estimated IPO price is RM5.20 per share.

With this information, let's do some calculation.

The total shares of Maxis is 2.25 billion / 30% = 7.5 billion.

For your information, Maxis made a revenue of RM8.45 billion and net profit of RM2.4 billion in 2008. For the 1st half year of 2009, revenue is RM4.24 billion and net profit is RM1.14 billion.

Let's estimate the EPS of Maxis now.

I'll estimate the net profit with the following simple guessing formula:

Multiply the half year net profit of 2009 by 2 to get a full year figure.

1.14 x 2 = 2.28

With this, the EPS will be 2.28/7.5 = 0.304

If the IPO price is 5.20, then the PE will be 5.2/0.304 = 17.11

Maxis stated that they plan to give back 75% of net profit as dividend. So the dividend will be around 0.304 x 75% = 0.228.

And the estimated DY will then be 0.228/5.20 = 4.38%

So, are you willing to buy Maxis IPO at the PE of around 17?

I think they come out with the proposed IPO price by referencing to Digi (6947), which currently has a PE of around 15.

Currently, even Digi doesn't seem attractive to me, so why should I buy Maxis at a higher PE and lower DY? This IPO is not attractive to me from the fundamental perspective.

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.

Software update to v2.80 available for Sing/Mal version of Garmin Nuvi 205/205w/255w

The new software version 2.80 is now available for Sing/Mal version of Garmin Nuvi 205/205w/255w.

This version will:

• Synchronize to English v5.30
• Update GPS firmware to v3.90

Here are the steps I have taken to successfully updated my Nuvi 255w.

Download the installation file from Garmin's website (link provided at the end of this article). The filename is nuvi255W_SG_v280.exe with the size of 10,672kb.

Remove the SD card (that I use to store additional maps) from the GPS slot.

Connect the GPS to my computer with USB cable and access to its storage.

Rename the file /Garmin/GPX/Current.gpx to /Garmin/GPX/temp.gpx. During the update process, a new Current.gpx file will be created and data in this temp.gpx will be restored to the new Current.gpx. If this step is not taken, you might lost your saved waypoints and/or favourites.

Delete these 3 files from /Garmin/Voice folder:

• English_American_Jack.vpm
• English_Australian_Karen.vpm
• English_British_Daniel.vpm

Don't worry, they'll be replaced with new version of voice files during the update process.

Run the nuvi255W_SG_v280.exe from the computer. It will copy over some files to the GPS.

Safely unplug the USB cable and let the GPS reboot by itself. You will see the message of "Software loading..." on the screen of the GPS while it is performing the update.

In less than a minute, the GPS will automatically reboot itself after the update is completed.

Now the GPS is loaded with new software v2.80 (successfully updated from the previous v2.70).

Quite disappointedly, there is still no ecoRoute feature in this v2.80 of Nuvi software for Sing/Mal 205/205w/255w units.

Click here to download the installation file for Garmin Nuvi 205/205w/255w Sing/Mal v2.80 software.

Paypal now allows withdrawal of money directly to Malaysia bank account

Good new for Malaysian Paypal users!

Now you can withdraw your money from Paypal directly to your bank account in Malaysia.

Withdrawal is free of charge if the amount is above RM400. Else RM3 is chargeable.

Banks which can accept money transfer from Paypal are:

• Affin Bank (PHBMMYKL)
• Alliance Bank (MFBBMYKL)
• Ambank (ARBKMYKL)
• Bank Islam (BIMBMYKL)
• Bank Kerjasama Rakyat (BKRMMYK1)
• Bank Muamalat (BMMBMYKL)
• Bank of America (BOFAMY2X)
• Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSNAMYK1)
• CIMB Bank (CIBBMYKL)
• Citibank (CITIMYKL)
• Deustche Bank (DEUTMYKL)
• EON Bank (EOBBMYKL)
• Hong Leong Bank (HLBBMYKL)
• HSBC Bank (HBMBMYKL)
• Maybank (MBBEMYKL)
• OCBC Bank (OCBCMYKL)
• Public Bank (PBBEMYKL)
• RHB Bank (RHBBMYKL)
• Standard Chartered Bank (SCBLMYKX)
• Royal Bank of Scotland (ABNAMYKL)
• UOB (UOVBMYKL)

The 8 characters code in bracket is the MEPS bank routing code which you need to provide during withdrawal from Paypal. You will also need to provide your bank account number too.

The withdrawal will normally take 2-3 days of processing.

What would you do with 10 million dollar?

This question "What would you do with 10 million dollar?" stroke my mind when it flashed out from the presentation slide of David Axmark during his talk about “Persevering in a FOSS business valued at USD$1 billion” in FOSS.my 2009 conference.

David Axmark is the co-founder of MySQL, the great database management system in used by many websites and applications nowadays. Somebody asked him this question few years back, before MySQL was sold to Sun Microsystems for US$1 billion.

David Axmark told us, by the time he was asked the question, he had no idea, though he sensed the investor might expect the answer something like "grow it to 100 million or more".

So, if you were asked the same question, what would be your answer?

Some of the possible answers might be...

• Employee: retire immediately and enjoy your life
• Businessman: grow it to 100 million or more
• Investor: possibly the same answer as businessman above
• Kind person: charity and social welfare, eg. build a school, setup a charity fund, help the unfortunate, etc...
• Traveller: go around the world, take a lot of pictures and videos, then produce books, films, etc. to share with the whole world about your discoveries
• Scientist: fund research to bring a better life to mankind
• Environmentalist: fund for activities to save the mother earth!
• Politician: fund for contesting in election
  
• Movie director: well, that's probably not enough to make a great movie. Too bad.
  
• many many more possibilities of answer (put in my comment page if you are generous to share with my readers...)