Beta release of Microsoft Security Essentials free antivirus

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

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

Here are some of the fact findings:

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

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

Three essential managers for successful project

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

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

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

Each of those engagements requires superior management of three elements:

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

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

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

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

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

I agree with him, do you?

Are you clear about your authority, responsibility and accountability?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1st Asia Women Business Power Conference

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

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

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

Among the speakers are:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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





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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Invest Malaysia 2009 conference

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

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

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

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

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

Click here fore more information about Invest Malaysia 2009.

Kids Money Management Camp

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

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

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

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

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

The OpenSource World tracks will cover:

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

The NGDC tracks will cover:

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

The CloudWorld tracks will cover:

• Cloud applications
• Cloud platforms
• Cloud infrastructure

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

Justify your expected salary during job interview session

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1. Your education background

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

2. Your job related certifications

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

3. Your professional membership status

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

4. Your working experiences

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

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

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

6. Testimonials from others

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

7. Other recognations

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

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

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

MSC Malaysia Open Source Conference 2009

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

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

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

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

Forbes Asia 2009 Malaysia 40 Richest List

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



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

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

Configure Ubuntu login window appearance and behavior

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

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



Among the configurable items in Ubuntu Login Window Preferences are:

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

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

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

From LCD TV to LED TV to OLED TV

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Database synchronization/replication with SymmetricDS

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

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

Supported databases including:

• MySQL version 5.0.2 and above

• Oracle version 8.1.7 and above

• PostgreSQL version 8.2.5 and above

• Sql Server 2005

• HSQLDB 1.8

• H2 1.1

• Apache Derby 10.3.2.1 and above

• IBM DB2 9.5

• Firebird 2.0 and above

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



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

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

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

Click here for more information about SymmetricDS.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For more information:

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

Launching of iCapital International Value Fund

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

6 Rookie CIO Mistakes in Vendor Management

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

1. Failing to Speak With One Voice

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

2. Skipping the Homework

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

3. Fixating on Price

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

4. Using Too Few Suppliers

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

5. Only Dealing With Large Vendors

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

6. Signing and Forgetting

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

From RON97 to RON95?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The rise and fall of Borland

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

National Career & Entrepreneurship Carnival 2009

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

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

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

The floor plan for this event is as below:


Activities including:

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

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

Gold investment with passbook account

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

Click here to check the gold rate of Maybank GSPA.

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

What can you do if your Ubuntu display screwed up

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

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

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

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

Cloud computing with Ubuntu Server Edition 9.x

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

Will Metro Kajang repeat the history of TSH?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Paying income tax with online banking

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

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

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

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

Scrapping of 30% bumiputra quota for 27 sub-sectors

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

The 27 liberalized sub-sectors are:

Computer and related services

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

Health and social services

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

Tourism services

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

Transport services

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

Sporting and other recreational services

• Sporting services (promotion and organization services)

Business services

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

Rental/Leasing services without operators

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

Supporting and Auxiliary Transport Services

• Maritime agency services
• Vessel salvage and refloating services
  

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

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

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

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

IBM the loser in Oracle-Sun deal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You might probably interested to read these articles as well:

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

Up to RM300 income tax deductible sport items

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

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

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

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

Reference: Sports Development Act 1997

You might probably interested to read these articles as well:

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

TM promotional RM10/month package for Streamyx user

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Help to fight hunger by playing quiz in FreeRice.com

FreeRice is an innovative brainchild of a programmer John Breed launched in 2007. It is a website where you can answer a series of multiple-choice quiz questions, and if you answer correctly, the site's sponsors will donate 10 grain of rice to the United Nations World Food Program.

FreeRice has two goals, which are made possible by the generosity of the sponsors who advertise on the website:

1. Provide education to everyone for free.
2. Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

The default quiz is about English vocabulary, and you can take the quiz of different subjects covering art, chemistry, English, geography, language learning, math, etc.

John has won the Harvard University's Berkman Award in 2008 for creating the FreeRice.com website. In March 2009, John has already donated the site to the UN World Food Program. The website is also a winner of Yahoo! Finds of the Year 2007 (Charity Category).

This is not a scam. You can really take the quiz and feed the hungry with FreeRice.com. By 13 April 2009, 62,751,284,800 grains of rice already donated in this interesting way.

Here are some examples of where FreeRice rice has been distributed:

• In Bangladesh, to feed 27,000 refugees from Myanmar for two weeks.
• In Cambodia, to provide take-home rations of four kilograms of rice for two months to 13,500 pregnant and nursing women.
• In Uganda, to feed 66,000 school children for a week.
• In Nepal, to feed over 108,000 Bhutanese refugees for three days.
• In Bhutan, to feed 41,000 children for 8 days.
• In Myanmar, to feed 750,000 cyclone affected people for 3 days.

Sukuk Simpanan Rakyat 2009 with 5% annual return

Have you heard about Sukuk Simpanan Rakyat (SSR) or seen its advertisement in mass media recently?

Sukuk Simpanan Rakyat (SSR) 2009 is an RM5 billions national Islamic savings bond issued by government of Malaysia and offerred to Malaysian citizens aged 21 or above. It is part of the Malaysian RM60 billions economic stimulus package announced in March 2009.

Bank Negara will issue the SSR in 2 phases. The issuance of SSR 01/2009 amounting to RM2.5 billion is on 14 May 2009 and will be offered to the public from 14 April to 13 May 2009 on a first-come-first-served basis and subjected to terms and conditions specified.

This SSR 01/2009 will have a maturity of 3 years, with profit rate of 5% per annum. The tax exempted return is paid quarterly (amounting to about 1.25% each payment). Minimum holding per person is RM1k and maximum holding is RM50k. It is is non-negotiable, non-transferable and non-assignable. This mean that this bond cannot be traded in any way.

During the sales period, the SSR 01/2009 can be subscribed at all agent banks, i.e. commercial banks, including Islamic banks, Bank Kerjasama Rakyat Malaysia Berhad, Bank Simpanan Nasional and Bank Pertanian Malaysia Berhad.

Click here for more information about Sukuk Simpanan Rakyat (SSR) 2009.

CIMB Petronas Mastercard offers 5% rebate every 1st day of the month

CIMB Petronas Mastercard is a credit card that is free for life (no annual fee) and provides 2% rebate on spendings at Petronas service stations, 0.5% rebate on other retail transactions. Beside that, card holder can enjoy special discounts and privileges when using it to make payment in more than 500 outlets nationwide.

Now, on top of that, this credit card will also provide 5% rebate on spendings at Petronas service stations made in the 1st day of every month, until October 2009.

However, this rebate is capped to a maximum spending of RM200 or rebate of RM10 on every 1st day of the month, and subjected to a maximum spending of RM2,500 at Petronas service stations or rebate of RM50 per card per month.

This doesn't look as attractive as their previous campaign which provided 3% rebate (everyday) for spending in Petronas service stations, which has already ended on 17 November 2008. Yet, it is better than none.

Forrester Research: Sponsored conversations make sense

According to an independent report published by Forrester Research on 2 March 2009,Sponsored Conversations is an evolving practical trend of marketing technique to stay and mature, especially when appropriately protected for disclosure and authenticity.

Sponsored conversations take place when marketers provide monetary or non-monetary form of award (or compensation) to bloggers who write and share their experience to the general public about their products, services, websites, etc.

If it is managed properly, this marketing approach is seen to be cost-effective, scalable, far-reaching and persuasive.

"The growth of sponsored conversation could lead to a whole new industry within the interactive marketing space and will have some dramatic effects on the blogosphere." -- Forrester Research

Click the banner at the footer of this webpage to download the full report of Forrester Research for free.

Mind Mapping with XMind

Originated as the brainchild of Tony Buzan (a famous psychology author and educational consultant), Mind Mapping has been used by many people as a great and interesting method to visualize and organize their thinkings, ideas, decisions, planning, problem solving, etc.

Mind Mapping can also be used for group of people during discussions, brain storming, note taking, etc.



XMind is an easy to learn and easy to use general purpose mind mapping application. Its diagram objects can be easily switched for mind maps, fishbone diagrams, tree diagrams, org-charts, logic charts, and even spreadsheets.

Being developed in Java, it is cross-platform and can be run in Windows, Linux and Mac OS. For Ubuntu and Debian Linux users, XMind is also well packaged as DEB distribution file for easy installation. There is also a portable version which doesn't require installation to use.

XMind has user interface in different languages, including English, Chinese (simplified & traditional), Japanese, German, etc.

Starting from its Version 3, XMind which was once proprietary and selling at US$299 has gone open source since 14 November 2008. This is really a good news for mind mapping fans. This mind mapping application now comes in 2 flavours - the free XMind and subscription based XMind Pro.

Click here to read about how XMind can be used by different people, such as meeting organizers, project managers, teachers, department members, students, team managers, architects, designers, etc.

In order to download XMind or XMind Pro from their website, you are required to create a free user ID in their website. With this user ID, you can collaborate with other XMind users in the community, share your maps with others, etc. There is a huge collection of sample maps available in their website.

Silicone wiper with lifetime warranty

The boneless rubber wipers that I last bought have already served me for about 20 months now. Although they are still usable, I noticed that the rubber colour has faded over time. Therefore, I decided to replace them with silicone wipers, which are about the same price of my boneless rubber wipers.

I have selected silicone wipers this time, as silicone material (made of silicon-oxygen polymer) is known to be very durable and will not degrade from prolonged exposure to sunlight, UV, ozone, washer fluid, road residue, chemicals, etc. (Some people or even vendors called this kind of wiper as "silicon wiper", but I think the correct term should be "silicone wiper" instead.)

I ordered the SWV silicone wipers through their website. This brand has been around for years, and the wipers are said to be imported from USA and manufactured by the same manufacturer of SilBlade.

The price can be calculated online by providing the make and model of my car. After making my order with their online form, they called me 2 days after to arrange for delivery and installation. The payment term is cash on delivery (COD), and to my surprise, no deposit is needed before delivery.

They sent a guy to deliver and install the wipers to me at the location chosen by me. I was also given a Lifetime Warranty Card, and they'll provide onsite support for the wipers. The wipers can wipe really clean, and I am happy with them.

My boneless rubber wipers are now kept in my storeroom as they are still usable. Perhaps will give them to friend who want to try out boneless wipers.

Free dental check-up and consultation in Oral Health Month

This April 2009, Colgate and the Malaysian Dental Association are having roadshows in major shopping complex nationwide for the Oral Health Month campaign.

During this awareness programme, free dental check-up and consultation will be given to the public in their roadshows, in-store venues as well as 560 participating dental clinics nationwide.

The road show venues are:

• April 3-5: Sunway Pyramid, Petaling Jaya
• April 7-12: Jusco Tebrau City, Johor
• April 16-18: Mydin Kuala Terengganu
• April 24-26: Sunshine Farlim, Penang

You can click here to visit to the Oral Health Month website. Complete list of locations providing the free dental check-up and consultation during this campaign is available there.

Downloadable documents, references and forms for 2008 income tax assessment

For your information, you can download the soft copy of some reference documents from the website of Inland Revenue Board (a.k.a. Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri, LHDN) to help you in assessing your income tax for year 2008.

The downloable documents including manual tax submission forms (Borang B, BE, etc.), explanatory notes to income tax items, user's guide to fill up the tax submission forms, tax assessment worksheets (helaian kerja), etc.

The exact download page is as below:

• Download for documents in Malay language
• Download for documents in English language

And here are the direct link to the more popular documents for you to click and download:

• Borang BE [Malay] [English] [Chinese] [Tamil]
• Explanatory notes to Borang BE [Malay] [English]
• User's guide and worksheets (helaian kerja) to Borang BE [Malay]
• Borang B [Malay] [English] [Chinese] [Tamil]
• Explanatory notes to Borang B [Malay] [English]
• User's guide and worksheets (helaian kerja) to Borang B [Malay]

If you need to fill-up some worksheets (helaian kerja) for your income tax documentation, you can print them from the attachment of the user's guide. Those worksheets include:

• HK-2 – Pengiraan Pendapatan Berkanun Penggajian
• HK-3 – Tolakan Cukai Di Bawah Seksyen 110 Akta Cukai Pendapatan 1967 / Seksyen 51 Akta Kewangan 2007 (Dividen)
• HK-4 – Butir-butir Harta/Aset Dan Jumlah Sewa
• HK-5 – Pengiraan Pendapatan Berkanun Faedah/Royalti
• HK-6 – Tolakan Cukai Di Bawah Seksyen 110 (Lain-lain)
• HK-8 – Pendapatan Daripada Negara Perjanjian Pengelakan Pencukaian Dua Kali Dan Tuntutan Pelepasan Cukai Di Bawah Seksyen 132
• HK-9 – Pendapatan Daripada Negara Bukan Perjanjian Pengelakan Pencukaian Dua Kali Dan Tuntutan Pelepasan Cukai Di Bawah Seksyen 133
  
• HK-10 – Potongan/Ansuran Cukai Yang Telah Dijelaskan
• HK-13 – Pelepasan Anak Bagi Anak-Anak Di Bawah Tanggungan Yang Belum Berkahwin
• HK-14 – Premium Insurans Nyawa/Caruman Kepada Kumpulan Wang Simpanan Dan Pencen Yang Diluluskan Serta Insurans Pendidikan Dan Perubatan
  

Related article:
e-Filing system for 2008 income tax assessment is ready to be used

Malaysia blacklisted by G20 as tax haven?

This is a shocking news to me, as Malaysia, together with 3 other nations i.e. Philippines, Uruguay and Costa Rica, were blacklisted as uncooperative tax havens by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) at the request of the Group of 20 (G20) summit.

In my perception, Malaysia is very far from being a tax haven to its residents. People always say that if you buy a big car, or a high-end property, you will always be on the eyes of Inland Revenue Board (IRB, a.k.a. Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri, LHDN). Same will go to those who never declare for income tax, or declared very little, and buy something valuable within the nation.

After some Google findings, it seems that the cause for this blacklist is by the Labuan offshore financial centre, which is viewed as the tax haven for foreigners. Although it is "offshore", now this small little island has caused a major impact to the whole Malaysia by this OECD's no-play-play blacklist action.

Surprisingly, some well-known tax havens such as Switzerland, Singapore, Cayman Islands, Liechtenstein, Monaco are just in the "grey list", together with Luxembourg, Austria, Belgium and Chile, just because they have agreed to "improve transparency standards".

China (including Hong Kong and Macao) is even in the "white list", due to their "commitment" to implement the internationally agreed tax standards.

So, it is now clear that the blacklisting is not based on how far the nations has gone in harboring foreign tax avoiders, but how cooperative to G20 are they in implementing the demanded tax standards.

This must be the most unwanted "greeting" to Najib who just sworn in as the new prime minister of Malaysia today. How will he resolve this issue?

For your information, the G20 is made up of the finance ministers and central bank governors of 19 countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, and also the European Union who is represented by the rotating Council presidency and the European Central Bank.

The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the President of the World Bank, plus the chairs of the International Monetary and Financial Committee and Development Committee of the IMF and World Bank, also participate in G20 meetings on an ex-officio basis.

Singapore wins back Evergreen Marine

On 2002, Evergreen Marine (长荣海运) completely pulled out of Singapore and settled down in Port of Tanjung Pelepas in Malaysia, as said due to cost issue.

Recently, the Taiwanese founder of Evergreen Group, Mr. Chang Yung-Fa (张荣发) appeared in Singapore and announced the opening of Evergreen Marine (Singapore) Pte Ltd, a newly formed company for the reentrance of Evergreen Marine back to Singapore.

Evergreen is expected to have 13 ships presently flying the Panamanian flag to move to Singapore and raise the Singaporean flag to take advantage of the Singapore's Approved International Shipping Enterprise (AIS) scheme which provides 10 years renewable tax exemption for qualified international shipping companies. In fact, one of their vessel already flying with Singaporean flag on 10 March 2009, which is their first vessel ever flying the flag of Singapore.

Mr. Chang also announced that Evergreen will expand their Singapore operations and plan to have about 50 Singapore-based fleets in the near future. This is considered significant, as Evergreen Marine has a total of about 180 vessels now.

Meanwhile, Evergreen does not have any expansion plan for their operations in Tanjung Pelepas.

This shows that Singapore has learnt their lesson, responded fast, and succeed in winning back this marine big player to their port. This move from Evergreen is expected to contribute positively to their economy and labour market. Congratulation.

Assessing company financial health with Altman Z-Score

In early 60's, Dr. Edward Altman (Professor and Vice-Director of New York University's Salomon Center, Leonard N. Stern School of Business) has used Multiple Discriminant Analysis to combine a set of 5 financial ratios and developed the famous Altman's Z-Score.

Nowadays, Altman's Z-Score is being used by many to assess a company's financial health. For instance, investors use it to determine if the company is worth for investment, bankers use it to determine loan risk, etc.

The 5 financial ratios used are:

• A = Return on Total Assets = EBIT / Total Assets
• B = Sales to Total Assets = Net Sales / Total Assets
• C = Equity to Debt = Market Value / Total Liabilities
• D = Working Capital to Total Assets = Working Capital / Total Assets
• E = Retained Earnings to Total Assets = Retained Earnings / Total Assets

Different weight factor is applied to the above 5 financial ratios, and the formula to calculate Altman's Z-Score is:

Z = 3.3A + 0.999B + 0.6C + 1.2D + 1.4E

The final result will yield a number between -4 and +8. The higher the score is better.

According to the Altman's Z-Score analysis:

• When Z is less than 1.8, the company is very likely to have financial trouble
• When Z is between 1.8 and 2.7, the company's financial situation is fair, and there is risk of getting into financial trouble
• When Z is between 2.7 and 2.99, the company is not likely to have financial trouble in the near future
• When Z > 3, the company is financially strong

Note that C which includes the market value of the company, is determined by its share price, and very much influenced by the investment market sentiment. However, C also carries the least weightage, and Return on Total Assets is the most important factor, which I think most fundamentalists are agreeing with.

Over the past 30+ years, Altman's Z-Score was found to be pretty usable to assess company financial health, with accuracy of above 70%.

Altman's Z-Score is a good tool to predict for investment safety, but bear in mind that it is not a tool designed to predict for investment profitability.