Six lessons that project managers could learn from elephants

Elephants are majestic creatures that have remained mysterious to humans though they have been domesticated thousands of years ago.

Tales of their bravery and intelligence have been carried through generations which can teach us a few things about community life.

Startups with brilliant plans and experienced project managers sometimes fail to implement their tasks or time or fail to recognize business opportunities and fall behind others.

Here are a few lessons that project managers can learn from these intelligent animals who have managed to survive for centuries in the midst of harsh environmental changes and pressure from human settlements.

1. Learning from mentors

Like a calf learns its first lessons humbly from its mother and other senior cow elephants in the herd and hones its survival instincts, project manager should also display humility before experts more experienced than them. Expertise and experience of seniors will help project manager avoid problems and maximize potential of success.

2. Awaiting recognition

The present trend among people is to work hard and achieve success at a faster pace to be considered as achievers in society and workplace. In this thirst for recognition and quick fame people fail to take time to appreciate efforts of others which have helped to bring them to this level. The ideal work culture should be to let your work speak for itself instead of hankering after glory.

3. Developing a thick skin

People in general lack a healthy attitude towards criticism and comparison and tend to develop negative reactions. The right approach would be to develop thick skin like an elephant which is extremely tough and take criticism in a positive manner to improve work standard and use it as an enriching experience.

4. Optimal use of strength

Just as an elephant uses its massive strength to pull a tiny shrub or a large tree with the same deftness, a project manager also should know where to use their expertise. Each individual is endowed with strength and ability to perform tasks and project manager has to recognize these abilities of team members and put them to effective use.

5. Effective communication

Elephants communicate with each other continuously to stay in touch and also to discuss about vegetation and water resources. In digital age man has much more tools of communication in hand to share ideas and convey progress reports. The key lies in sharing details at appropriate times to manage project progress.

6. Surviving against adversity

As firms grow and expand there will be bigger challenges for project managers as they will have to compete against bigger brands and people more experienced than themselves. Strong managers have to develop survival instinct to give a fair fight to all opponents and complete project successfully.

(Note: The above is excerpted from the Project Portfolio Management Playbook published by Thinking Portfolio)

CIMB CashLite and the calculation of effective interest rate from flat interest rate

I was called by CIMB and offered a credit card linked personal loan (a.k.a. cash advance facility) called CIMB CashLite at the flat interest rate of 3.99% for a tenure period of up to 4 years (48 months).

I was told that there are no fees involved (cash advance fees, processing fees, etc.) other than the flat interest rate. Of course, there is still a catch: every monthly instalment need to be paid promptly, or else there will be penalty charge (late payment charge) and finance charge on the outstanding payment.

I was also told that there are no lock-in periods or early settlement fees for this loan. Early settlement can be made by calling to their customer service.

Is the interest rate of 3.99% looks attractive? So far, this is the lowest credit card linked personal loan rate offered to me. Not long ago, I was also offered by HSBC at an interest rate of 4.99% which I had rejected.

To quickly calculate the effective interest rate, what I need is MS Excel. Google Sheets or Docs To Go spreadsheets in my Android phone can do the same calculation too.

Open a new worksheet, and key in the information for loan amount (principal), the flat annual interest rate, and the number of repayments.

For example, a loan amount of $10,000 at the flat annual interest rate of 3.99% over a period of 4 years is as below:

The total interest payable is =B1*B2*B3/12. This is because 3.99% is the annual rate, so we have to divide 48 months by 12 to get 4 years, and apply the 3.99% per annum rate to it.

The total repayment is =B1+B5. This is very straightforward.

The monthly payment amount is =B6/B3. This is also very straightforward.

Once we obtained the monthly payment amount, we can calculate the effective interest rate with this formula:
=RATE(B3,-B7,B1,0)*12

And the effective interest rate I got is 7.46%.

Back to the question: is this interest rate attractive?

I would say it is quite attractive to me.

If I take the loan and make an investment with CAGR of 3.99%, I would have gain 1694.09 from a 10,000 principal 4 years later. Deducting the interest paid of 1596, I still made 98.09 from it. That is 0.98% of 10,000.

If I take the loan and make an investment with CAGR of 10%, I would have gain 4641 from a 10,000 principal 4 years later. Deducting the interest paid of 1596, I will make 3045 from it. That is 30.45% of 10,000.

So, you guess, did I actually take up this offer by CIMB?

Olympus Global Open Photo Contest 2015

"Photography has the power to bring people together from all over the world."

Currently Olympus Corporation is having an Olympus Global Open Photo Contest 2015 that is open to everyone, from amateurs to professionals, using any photographic device from smartphones to interchangeable lens DSLR cameras, of any brand.

The contest accepts entries until 11:00 am, Friday, 20 November 2015 (Japan time).

To participate, you need to go to the contest website and register for an account, then upload your photo into the appropriate category from:

• Birth
• Place to preserve
• Smiles and laughter
• Macro
• Art

Each entrant may submit up to 5 photo entries for each theme, and each submitted photo must be in JPEG format and be 15MB or smaller.

In the contest website, you can also view all the photo entries already participated in this contest.

 

The Grand Prize winner will be awarded the latest Olympus PEN camera and lens, along with 1,000,000 Japanese yen (about US$8,350).

There will be 14 additional prizes given out per theme, and a Viewers' Raffle will be held with an additional 301 winners, totaling to 372 winners.

My NutriBullet Pro 900 Series 900W Superfood Nutrition Extractor - more than just a blender

I purchased this NutriBullet Pro 900 Series 900W Superfood Nutrition Extractor online at the price of slightly more than RM200 a few months ago.

Its packaging box is quite thin, therefore you can see its corners got dented a bit along the way with the courier service when the online merchant sent it to me. Anyhow, the content inside is not hurt.

Unboxing this NutriBullet Pro 900 Series, you will find...

• 1x high-torque NutriBullet power base
• 2x tall cups (24 oz), one with handled lip ring and another with regular lip ring
• 1x short cup (18 oz)
• 1x colossal cup (32 oz)
• 1x flip-top to-go lid
• 2x stay-fresh resealable lids
• 2x stainless steel extractor blades

You can also find 3 books inside...

• 1x NutriBullet Pocket Nutritionist
• 1x NutriBullet User Guide & Recipe Book
• 1x NutriBullet Life Changing Recipe Book

This NutriBullet is not like other blender or juicer in the market.

Firstly, it is equipped with a much more powerful 900-watt (1.2 HorsePower) motor, which is able to spin its specially designed stainless steel extractor blade at the speed of 25,000 RPM. This fast action can break down, while pulverizing, all the thick and tough skins, stems and seeds of the nuts, fresh fruits and vegetables which contains all the essential nutrients hidden within it.

Secondly, its bullet-shape design with overturned cup in action produces a cyclonic action that break the pulp, skin, seeds, and stems of the plants down into tiny drinkable particles.

Therefore, its chewing, juicing, or blending result can't be rival by ordinary blenders. Ordinary blender just able to mix all the food items you put in it without breaking down into finer particles or smoothening it. This makes it to leave out pulp and fiber as a waste when you run the mixture through a strainer. The blender is fit to make a thinned out smoothie. NutriBullet on the other hand, leaves no residue of the food particles when you run the juice through a strainers as it pulverizes the food particles and converts it into a pulpy rich smoothie that is filled with nutritional value. It offers you a Nutriblast drink that is rich in fiber and nutrition.

With it, I can make delicious soups, juices, dressings, desserts, ice-creams, dips, sauces, peanut butter, baby foods, etc. There are quite a lot of NutriBullet recipes available in the Internet. There are also a few NutriBullet cook books available in the bookstores.

Zero fee for MEPS Interbank Funds Transfer (IBFT) service from 1 Oct 2015 to 31 Dec 2015

There are generally 2 ways to perform interbank money transfer in Malaysia using either online banking, mobile banking or ATM machine.

One way is using the Interbank GIRO (IBG) service provided by Malaysian Electronic Clearing Corporation Sdn Bhd (MyClear). The transaction will take time from a few hours (if the transfer is made early in the morning before 9.30am of the same day) to a few days (if the transfer is made over the weekend or holiday) for clearance. The fee per transaction is RM0.11 including GST.

Another way is using the Interbank Funds Transfer (IBFT) service provided by Malaysian Electronic Payment System Sdn Bhd (MEPS). Unlike IBG, IBFT money transfer is real time and does not need to wait that long time for clearance. The fee per transaction used to be RM1.06 including GST, and has been reduced to RM0.53 including GST from June 2015 onwards.

Now there is even better news for using IBGT. The transaction fee is completely waived, and therefore no GST incurred as well, within the promotional period from 1 October 2015 to 31 December 2015.

Note that this zero fee IBGT promotion is applicable to online banking and mobile banking only. The IBGT done using ATM machine still has a normal fee of RM0.53 including GST per transaction.

Currently, there are 15 banks that offer IBFT instant fund transfer service via their Internet Banking website. They are:

• Agrobank
• Affin Bank
• Alliance Bank
• Bank Islam
• Bank Muamalat
• Bank Rakyat
• CIMB Bank
• Citibank
• Hong Leong Bank
• Kuwait Finance House
• Maybank
• OCBC Bank
• Public Bank
• RHB Bank
• Standard Chartered Bank

There are 6 banks offering IBGT instant fund transfer service via their Mobile Banking service through Android and/or iOS apps. They are:

• Bank Islam
• CIMB Bank
• Citibank
• OCBC Bank
• Public Bank
• Standard Chartered Bank

Source: MEPS zero fee IBFT promotion webpage.

Buying guide for computer power supply unit (PSU)

Time flies. My Dell Studio XPS 8100 is 5 years old now. It is still working fine, except of some occasional auto restarts during cold boot up.

I decided to replace its stock Chicony CPB09-001A 350 Watt power supply (PSU) as an attempt to fix this auto restart problem. So far, this problem doesn't occur again after I replaced the PSU.

After all, the PSU is a very important component of the computer that converts the AC current from wall socket into DC current of various voltage and distribute them to power up all the electronic parts of the computer. A faulty PSU might fry up the motherboard, introduce bad sectors and/or damage the harddisk, introduce error to memory, burn up the graphics display card, etc.

Not all branded PC can swap in with power supply of other brand, because of proprietary cabling or setting. Luckily, this Dell Studio XPS 8100 uses a standard ATX power supply, and therefore can fit in with another standard ATX power supply, regardless of the brand.

I looked for a low cost but reliable PSU, so that the computer can continue to serve me for another 3 years or so.

Initially I wanted to buy the Corsair VS450, but there was no stock in the shop I went to. I ended up purchased a Cooler Master B500 ver.2 to replace the stock PSU in my desktop.

I have made some study on how to choose a suitable PSU for my computer before I went to the shop, and would like to share the knowledge here with you.

Choosing Suitable PSU Wattage

The first thing to consider for a PSU is how many Watt of PSU is suitable for the PC. Choosing a lower wattage PSU increases the risk of system to become unstable and louder noise from PSU. Choosing a higher wattage PSU decreases efficiency at lighter loads, and the price is higher too.

You can refer to my article about calculating the recommended power supply wattage for desktop computer. However, this time, I used another website at http://powersupplycalculator.net/ to calculate for the wattage recommendation.

Typically, the CPU and the graphics display card (with GPU on it) are the 2 components in the PC that consume the most power, and high end GPU can consume much more power than the CPU.

For normal PC with normal CPU and one normal graphics display card, a high efficiency power supply of 400-500 watt should be sufficient. You might need more wattage if you have high end GPU, or multiple graphics display cards in the same PC.

PSU Efficiency and Certification

What is the efficiency of power supply? Well, when the PSU converts the AC current to DC current, certain portion of the electric will be lost in the form of heat.

If a power supply is 80% efficient, it can convert 100W of AC current into 80W DC, dissipating the remaining  20W in heat.

Therefore, a high efficiency power supply will waste less electric in the process of converting the AC to DC, produces less heat, and requires less cooling fan speed (and hence runs more silently).

There is a certification body called 80 Plus that will test and confirm if a model of PSU always has an efficiency of at least 80%.

There are several certification grades, from just 80 Plus, to bronze, silver, gold, platinum, and titanium. The higher the grade, the more efficiency is required, and normally the more expensive will be the PSU.

The Cooler Master B500 ver.2 is 80 Plus certified. You can click here for its 80 Plus verification and testing report.

Normally, the PSU has the highest efficiency when it is loaded with around 50% of its capacity. It has lower efficiency at lower load (eg. when the computer is at idle state) or higher load (eg. when all the CPU cores, GPU and memory are at high utilization state).

The 80 Plus test result of Cooler Master B500 ver.2 shows its efficiency rate as below:

• 20% load - 82.75% efficiency, power factor of 0.97
• 50% load - 84.55% efficiency, power factor of 0.99
• 100% load - 81.51% efficiency, power factor of 0.99

You can find the list of all other brands and models of PSU that are 80 Plus certified in their website.

Beside 80 Plus, this Cooler Master B500 ver.2 is also ecoPSU certified. You can click here for its ecoPSU  Level 85 verification and testing report.

The test result with ecoPSU shows even better efficiency than 80 Plus.

Note that both the 80 Plus and ecoPSU also define the minimum power factor requirement in their certification. What is power factor then?

Power Factor Correction

The power factor of an AC electrical power system is defined as the ratio of the real power flowing to the load to the apparent power in the circuit.

In an electric power system, a load with a low power factor draws more current than a load with a high power factor for the same amount of useful power transferred.

The PSU has power factor correction (PFC) circuits to increase its power factor. The PFC circuits type is either passive, active, or dynamic. Low grade PSU uses passive PFC, better one uses active PFC, and dynamic PFC is just too expensive for use in computer PSU.

Therefore, "Active PFC" is probably one of the keyword you search for when considering a PSU. The Cooler Master B500 ver.2 uses active PFC circuits.

The +12v Rail

The Cooler Master B500 ver.2 has a single +12v rail with maximum rating of 38A, 456W. This is the most important rail that supply electric to the high power consumption components of the computer, including the CPU and GPU.

Some PSU has dual or multiple +12v rails to split out the current, especially those PSU with high +12v rail maximum rating of above 40A, so that you can use one rail for CPU, and another for GPU, to balance up the load on the +12v rails.

The Cooler Master B-series of PSU used to have dual +12v rails, but version 2 has switched to single rail design. You can click here to find out the reason why Cooler Master made the change.

Modular vs Non-modular

The Cooler Master B500 ver.2 is non-modular. All its cable rails are attached with the PSU and cannot be detached from its outlet. A PSU with modular cabling system provides a detachable cabling system, offering the ability to remove unused connections, which can reduce clutter and improve air flow in the computer.

Modularity isn't my main concern, as the chassis of Dell Studio XPS 8100 is pretty spacious.

Lifespan and MTBF

The life span of a PSU is usually specified in mean time between failures (MTBF). The Cooler Master B500 ver.2 has an MTBF of 100,000 hours.

This should mean that the PSU has a probability of more than 75% to survive more than 3 years (and therefore has about 25% of chance to fail within 3 years). Also, it has around 25% probability to last as long as 100,000 hours.

Protection Circuits

Modern PSU has protection circuits to prevent the computer components such as the motherboard and harddisk from being fried due to excessive current drawn, or overheat, etc.

These are the keywords you can look for a PSU protection circuits:

• SCP - short circuit protection
• OPP - overpower/overload protection
• OCP - overcurrent protection
• OTP - overtemperature protection
• OVP - overvoltage protection
• UVP - undervoltage protection

The Cooler Master B500 ver.2 has SCP, OPP, OCP, OTP and OVP. Its manufacturer doesn't mention about UVP for it.

Connectors

The Cooler Master B500 ver.2 has the following connectors, which are sufficient for my Dell Studio XPS 8100 PC.

Visualized map of real-time air quality index and forecast of air pollution level

It has been for quite some times the haze resulting from huge forest fires in Indonesia has created a cloud of smog over itself and the neighbouring Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and southern Thailand.

Here is a website that gather official data of air quality index (AQI) or air pollution index (API) from all around the world, and publish the information in a visualized map and charts. Its URL is: http://aqicn.org/map/

From the website, you can immediately know the current and also forecasted air quality level of a country, region or city.

The URL for Malaysia AQI map is:
 http://aqicn.org/map/malaysia/

(Screen captured on 15 September 2015)

The URL for Singapore AQI map is:
http://aqicn.org/map/Singapore

(Screen captured on 15 September 2015)

The URL for Kuala Lumpur AQI map and chart is:
http://aqicn.org/city/kuala-lumpur/

(Screen captured on 15 September 2015)

Colour indicators in the map and chart:

• Green = healthy
• Yellow = moderately unhealthy
• Orange = unhealthy
• Red = very unhealthy
• Purple = extremely unhealthy

My Sharp IG-DC2E-B Plasmacluster ion generator (in car air purifier)

I applied a new HSBC Amanah Credit Card in March 2015 and was promised with a Sharp in car air purifier (worth about RM350) as signing free gift by meeting the required terms and conditions.

After waited for about half a year, I finally received this free gift from HSBC.

As a car ionizer, this Sharp IG-DC2E-B functions in my car to:

• Purify air by settling airborne particles and dust
• Disinfect viruses
• Deodorize bad smell
• Remove adhered mold and suspend further mold
• Remove allergens from dead dust mites and dust mite faeces

The unit is cylindrical in shape, looks like a typical water container, and fit in the cup holder in the car.

Installation is pretty easy, just need to remove its back cover to plug in the power connection cable, route the power cord to come out from either one of its two outlets (one near its middle, and another near its bottom) , then cover back the back cover. Plug the other end of the power connection cable to the car's lighter socket, and it is ready to operate.

There are 3 available operation modes:

• Low: ion density of 7,000 ions per cubic centimetre, quiet, consume less power (1.1 watt).
• High: ion density of 25,000 ions per cubic centimetre, noisier, consume more power (1.8 watt).
• Turbo: ion density of 50,000 ions per cubic centimetre, noisiest, consume most power (2.7 watt).

The IZ-C75CE Plasmacluster ion generating unit can be seen after removing the back cover of the IG-DC2E-B. It has a lifespan of approximately 19,000 hours (more than 6 years) and need replacement upon end of life.

Now my car has 2 ionizers, the existing Medklinn mobile ionizer (I've already made an upgraded to Medklinn Asens Auto from the one shown in the linked article) and this new Sharp Plasmacluster ion generator. The Medklinn claims to be able to produce much more ions (2 millions per cubic centimetre) than the Sharp.

I have no problem connecting both of them to the car's lighter socket, as I have an  HSC YC-401 Car 1-to-3 Cigarette Lighter Sockets with 2 USB ports in my car.

Khan Academy - the free online tuition website

I would like to share with you a great online tuition (e-learning) website called Khan Academy (http://www.khanacademy.org/), founded by Salman Amin Khan (a.k.a. Sal or Khan, born 11 October 1976) with the ambition "to provide a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere".

Salman Khan is a Bengali American who graduated with multiple Bachelor degrees  (mathematics, electrical engineering, and computer science) and multiple Master degrees (electrical engineering, and computer science) from M.I.T. He is also an MBA graduate from Harvard Business School.

Khan is not only very knowledgeable in mathematics and science, but also very good in explaining and teaching things in a very easy to understand manner.

He started this venture in 2003,  tutoring his cousin Nadia mathematics over the Internet using Yahoo!'s Doodle notepad. His tutorials are so interesting and attracted more and more relatives and friends of Nadia to join in, until he established the Khan Academy channel in Youtube to upload his tutorial videos and made free access to everyone.

Today, Khan Academy website hosted thousands of educational video lessons, encompassing mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry,  organic chemistry, health and medicine, cosmology, astronomy, economics, finance, history, music, arts, computing, etc., from primary school level until college level.

These videos  have been viewed over 500 millions times.

As a non-profit educational organization, Khan Academy operates solely on donations. It doesn't charge you any money to access the website and all the content in it, and the content does not have any annoying advertisement too.

The Khan Academy website is simple, straightforward and easy to use. Parents and teachers can link their account with their own children and/or students to monitor and provide guidance for their learning progress in Khan Academy.

This is a very good online tuition website for yourself as well as for your children and/or students. It is fun to learn from its video tutorials. It is highly recommended by many people who has benefited from it, including Bill Gates.

TPC Plus (TPC, 7176), will it be the phoenix rising from the ashes?

TPC Plus (TPC, 7176) is a high quality (mainly Grade A) egg producer in the poultry farming industry. It is based in Melaka and has been listed in Bursa Malaysia (KLSE) since 2003.

Among its range of products are TPC Lower Cholesterol eggs, TPC Omega eggs, TPC Organic Selenium eggs, TPC Golden Corn eggs, TPC Farm Fresh eggs, washed-sanitized-coated (WASACO) eggs, etc.

In spite of producing high quality products, its financial results were not so attractive, especially after 2006.

In 2010, London Biscuits (LONBISC, 7126) which is in the cake confectionery business whereby egg is a major raw material, acquired TPC by buying about 32% stake in TPC from its then executive chairman Yee Tiam Teck and managing director Jimmy E. Pian at the price of RM0.30 per share.

After that, LONBISC had made a voluntary takeover offer at RM0.30 per share for TPC, but the respond was not good. It ended up with 33.65% holding in TPC.

Shortly after that, LONBISC sold off all its egg business, comprised 23.29% of Lay Hong (LAYHONG, 9385) to QL Resources (QL, 7084) and this 33.65% of TPC to Huat Lai Resources (HUATLAI, 7141).

HUATLAI acquired the 33.65% stake of TPC from LONBISC at the price of about RM0.30 in 2011. After that, HUATLAI had made a conditional takeover offer at RM0.30 per share for TPC. It ended up with 51.05% holding in TPC in 2012, and TPC becomes a subsidiary of HUATLAI till today.

Since then, HUATLAI took over the management of TPC and replaced its board of directors with own management team. The managing director of HUATLAI, Mr. Lim Yeow Her is now also the managing director of TPC.

The management has undergone several restructuring exercises to strengthen the financial of TPC. We also see TPC expansion in production with new layer houses and pullet houses. The financial results of TPC gradually improves since HUATLAI's acquisition.

Chart taken from http://www.malaysiastock.biz

And the share price of TPC also gradually moves from the range of RM0.2x (when with LONBISC), to RM0.3x, and then to RM0.4x.

In February 2014, TPC was classified as a PN17 listed company after its auditors expressed concern over a net loss of RM4.1 million in the financial year ended 2013, and also took into account TPC’s shareholders equity as at 31 December 2013 was less than 50% of its issued capital.

Its share price dropped back to the range of RM0.2x immediately after the PN17 announcement, but gradually climbed back as seen in the chart above.

On 31 July 2015, TPC has obtained approval from Bursa Malaysia for its proposed regularization plan to uplift from PN17, which entails a proposed share premium reduction, proposed par value reduction, proposed rights issue with warrants, proposed capitalisation of amount owing to its holding company HUATLAI, as well as proposed amendments to its memorandum of association and articles of association.

TPC has called for an EGM to be held on 17 September 2015 to get shareholders nod on this proposal. Click here to read about the circular about this PN17 upliftment proposal.

Shareholders of TPC are proposed with Rights to purchase new TPC shares at the indicative price of RM0.20 per share on the basis of 3 Rights Shares for every 2 TPC shares held. For each of the 3 Rights Shares subscribed, the shareholders will get 2 free Warrants.

Under this proposal, TPC will be listing up to 180 million new shares for its proposed rights issue with warrants and proposed capitalization. Besides, a total of 80 million warrants with exercise price of RM0.20 will be issued pursuant to the proposed rights issue with warrants.

The proceeds to be raised from the proposed rights issue with warrants will be utilized by TPC for the purchase of layer houses, pullet houses,  equipment, working capital and expenses in relation to the proposed regularization plan.

TPC currently has 80 millions issued share listed in Bursa Malaysia. As reported in TPC Annual Report 2014, HUATLAI currently holds 52.91% stake in TPC. Only 54 shareholders own more than 100,000 shares in TPC after HUATLAI, which is equilvalent to 31.53%. About thousand over shareholders hold the remaining 15.56%.

As of today 10 September 2015, TPC share price closed at RM0.525. Its trailing 4 quarters EPS stood at 6.07sen, forming a PE ratio of 8.65. This is calculated based on its existing 80 million issued shares.

After the rights issue, its number of shares will immediately become 260 million, not accounting the 80 million warrants convertible to shares at the price of RM0.20. Not accounting for the result of share premium reduction and the proceed from rights subscription, its adjusted EPS will be 1.87sen. If taken those proceeds into account, the EPS figure will be higher.

TPC needs to maintain 2 consecutive quarters of operational profit in order to get upliftment from PN17. Will TPC be the phoenix rising from the ashes? Let's see.

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.

A family trip to Royal Selangor Visitor Centre

Located at Setapak Jaya, an outskirt quite some distance away from Kuala Lumpur city center, the Royal Selangor Visitor Centre is a modern building with built-up area of 40,000 sqft. It is known as the world's largest pewter factory and showroom.

The company was originally called Selangor Pewter, and was awarded with its Royal charter by the Sultan of Selangor in 1992.

Outside the building, there is a world's largest pewter tankard as recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records. This is a nice place to take some photos.

We are assigned with a pretty guide after registration at the front counter. She accompanied us throughout the visiting tour, explaining about the displayed items and answering to our questions.

The first station we visited is a museum about the founder, Yong Koon, founded the company in 1885, the pewtersmithing tools used at that time, some of the products including the old tin currency in animal shape and money tree.

On the wall, there is a giant touchmark with the Chinese words "玉和足锡" (meanings Jade, Peace, and Pure Tin) which Yong Koon used during the early days of his pewtersmithing workshop.

There is also a giant weighting scale that can accommodate a few children to stand on it.

After talking about the history, the next station talks about the science of pewter. It explains that pewter is an alloy with majority of tin and some copper and antimony.

The next station is the Chamber of Chimes, where we can produce musical sounds with cast pewter cylinders of different length. There are also some other cylinders made of wood, hang down from the ceiling.

Then we entered into the Hall of Finishes, with a lot of pewter tiles with different patterns and textures displayed on the wall.

The next station is the Hall of Frames, with many pewter made photo frames displayed on the wall.

On another wall, there are hand prints of all the craftsmen who worked more than 5 years with the company.

There is also a replicate of the Petronas Twin Towers made up of many tankards, which is about 2 storey high.

The next station displays a giant container with 1,578kg of pewter swarf, and some pewter pots made by recycling the pewter swarf.

At the end of the tour, we have a look at the pewter factory with about 400 craftsmen working at their well organized workstation. Complimentary drinks of 100 Plus is served in pewter cup. Only limited workstations can be closely visited by visitors, the rest we can only see from the visiting bridge but cannot enter into their area.

There is a place for visitors to experience the process of creating a pewter dish/bowl using traditional tools of hammer and wooden mould. A fee of RM63.60 per person was charged for this session. Our children liked it very much. It took about 30 minutes for them to make their own dish with hard knocks. The finished work can be taken home, together with a certificate of completion.

Opposite, there is a pewter foundry for visitors to experience the process of casting, polishing and decorating a pewter accessory. The fee is RM159. We didn't try this one.

Entering the showroom, there are many pewter products available for sell. They told us the most famous type of product sold is the tea caddies, ideal as gift as well as for own use. There are also Star Wars collections which are pretty nice.

Beside the showroom, there is a café serving light meals and ice-cream.

If you plan to take a visit to the Royal Selangor Visitor Centre, you can probably take down their GPS coordinate here: 3.196, 101.724.

Inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2017

I have posted the list of auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in 2017 a few days ago, and here is the reverse, namely the inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2017. The list below is produced based on the Chinese almanac Tong Shu. (Click the image to enlarge)

If you are concerned, then you should probably avoid getting married on the listed days above.

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.

Auspicious dates for wedding / marriage in 2017

Many couples plan for their wedding more than 1 year ahead in order to have sufficient preparation time.

Here is the list of auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in year 2017 (year of Rooster), which is produced based on the Chinese almanac Tong Shu. (Click the image to enlarge)

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.

The Seven Deadly Social Sins as shared by Mahatma Gandhi

Indian folk hero Mahatma Gandhi wrote about the Seven Deadly Social Sins, also known as the Seven Blunders of the World, or the Seven Dangers to Human Virtue, or the Seven Things that will Destroy Us, in the Young India newspaper in 1925.

The list is as below:

• Wealth without work
• Pleasure without conscience
• Knowledge without character
• Commerce without morality / Business without ethics
• Science without humanity
• Worship without sacrifice / Religion without sacrifice
• Politics without principle

Mahatma Gandhi also gave the same list to his fifth grandson Arun Gandhi, who is now an Indian-American socio-political activist.

It is said that Arun later added the eighth into the list, which is:

• Rights without responsibilities

Dr. Stephen R. Covey (author of the famous book The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People) has, in his another book titled Principle Centered Leadership, allocated a chapter to explain about Gandhi's list of seven deadly social sins.

According to Dr. Stephen Covey...

Wealth without work refers to the practice of getting something for nothing - manipulating markets and assets so you don't have to work or produce added value, just manipulate people and things. These include professions built around making wealth without working, making much money without paying taxes, benefiting from free government programs without carrying a fair share of the financial burdens, and enjoying all the perks of citizenship of country and membership of corporation without assuming any of the risk or responsibility.

Pleasure without conscience is a mind-set of immature, greedy, selfish, and sensuous. It is our challenge to learn to give and take, to live selflessly, to be sensitive, and to be considerate. Otherwise there is no sense of social responsibility or accountability in our pleasurable activities.

Knowledge without character is as dangerous as a little knowledge is, even more dangerous is much knowledge without a strong, principled character.

Commerce without morality - Adam Smith wrote in his book Moral Sentiment that, if we ignore the moral foundation and allow economic systems to operate without moral foundation and without continued education, we will soon create an amoral, if not immoral, society and business.

To Adam Smith, every business transaction is a moral challenge to see that both parties come out fairly. Fairness and benevolence in business are the underpinnings of the free enterprise system called capitalism. Our economic system comes out of a constitutional democracy where minority rights are to be attended to as well. The spirit of the Golden Rule or of win-win is a spirit of morality, of mutual benefit, of fairness for all concerned. Paraphrasing one of the mottos of the Rotary Club, "Is it fair and does it serve the interests of all the stakeholders?" That's just a moral sense of stewardship toward all of the stakeholders.

Science without humanity - if there is very little understanding of the higher human purposes that the technology is striving to serve, we becomes victims of our own technocracy.

Worship without sacrifice - there is no real walking with people or going the second mile or trying to deal with our social problems that may eventually undo our economic system. It takes sacrifice to serve the needs of other people - the sacrifice of our own pride and prejudice, among other things.

Politics without principle - You see politicians spending millions of dollars to create an image, even though it is superficial, lacking substance, in order to get votes and gain office. And when it works, it leads to a political system operating independently of the natural laws that should govern.

The key to a healthy society is to get the social will, the value system, aligned with correct principles. You then have the compass needle pointing to true north - true north representing the external or the natural law - and the indicator says that is what we are building our value system on : they are aligned.

But if you get a sick social will behind the political will that is independent of principle, you could have a very sick organization or society with distorted values.

How to change the default search engine in Microsoft Edge web browser from Bing to Google or others

Microsoft Edge is the web browser that comes together with MS Windows 10, which is made to replace Internet Explorer.

By default, it will use Bing as its search engine to search for the keywords you typed in its search bar. If you want to change the search engine to Google, Yahoo, Baidu or others, follow the steps below.

First, you need to use Microsoft Edge to visit to the webpage of your preferred search engine, eg. http://www.google.com.

Then, go to the Settings panel.

Scroll down to Advanced Settings section, and click on the "View advanced settings" button.

Scroll down to "Search the address bar with", and select "".

You should now be able to see "www.google.com". Select it and click the "Add as default" button.

You can repeat the steps above to add in more search engines to the selection list.

How to mitigate excessive Internet data usage of MS Windows 10

If you have upgraded your Microsoft Windows operating system to the latest Windows 10, and found out that your computer is taking up a lot of your Internet bandwidth and consuming a lot of your data usage, there are 2 settings for you to mitigate this problem.

The first setting is to disable peer-to-peer sharing of Windows Update files and Windows apps that you have downloaded in your computer with other MS Windows 10 computers in the Internet.

Go to Start > Settings > Update & Security.

Then, go to Windows Update and click on "Advanced options".

Inside Advanced Options, click on "Choose how updates are delivered".

In the next screen about Update from more than one place, you can either set the option "when this is turned on, your PC may also send parts of previously downloaded Windows updates and apps to PCs on your local network, or PCs on the Internet, depending on what's selected below.' to OFF, or if you want to share with PCs within your local network but not across the Internet, leave it as ON and select "PCs on my local network".

If you leave the option to be the default "PCs on my local network, and PCs on the Internet", many computers from the Internet will just swarm in and suck off your Internet bandwidth, causing your computer and your Internet link to become slow, and if your Internet line is on quota usage, this will also consume up your data plan within a short period of time.

To further mitigate the Internet data usage, the second setting is to tell Windows that your Internet connection is metered connection. This will prevent background processes and Windows apps use up your Internet link to sync information and provide real time updates to you.

Go to Start > Settings > Network & Internet.

Then click on "Advanced options" under Wi-Fi screen.

Set the Metered Connection to ON.

If you find this information helpful, do not be hesitated to click on the share buttons below to share it with your friends.

If your Mozilla Firefox web browser can no longer access certain HTTPS websites, try this fix

Mozilla Firefox version 39 onwards will by default block the HTTPS connections to web servers using weak ephemeral Diffie-Hellman (DH) keys.

Bear in mind that by default, Firefox is set to automatically update itself from time to time, so your version will eventually be updated to version 39 and above.
This is a security measure against the Logjam attack. You can click here to read more about this Logjam attack.
If you visit to an affected website using HTTPS connection with Firefox, you will see the following error message:

Affected websites including the webmail of older version of Zimbra Collaboration Suite. Click here for more detail.
You can fix this by installing the Disable DHE 0.1.2 Add-on by Mozilla to Firefox.

To install, go to Menu > Add-ons in Firefox, and search for "Disable DHE". Once you found the add-on, click the Install button to install it.

Restart Firefox and check if this fix works for you.

If your Mozilla Thunderbird email client can no longer get email from mail server, try this fix

One day, I found that there was no new email coming in to my Mozilla Thunderbird email client for quite a long time, but I could still receive new emails from the same server with my smartphone.

I looked into the Error Console of Thunderbird by going to Tools > Error Console (you can also press the hotkeys Ctrl-Shift-J to go to the same place) and found this error message:

A search in the Internet informed that Mozilla Thunderbird version 38.1.0 and above will block the connections to any mail server using weak ephemeral Diffie-Hellman (DH) keys by default, therefore it can no longer retrieve new emails from the affected server.

Bear in mind that by default, Thunderbird is set to automatically update itself from time to time, so your version will eventually be updated to version 38.1.0 and above.

Blocking the weak Diffie-Hellman key exchange is in fact a security measure against Logjam attack against the TLS protocol. You can click here to read more about this Logjam attack.

Affected email servers including older version of Zimbra Collaboration Suite. Click here for more detail.

While waiting for the mail server administrator to fix the problem at the server side, I applied the Disable DHE 0.1.2 Add-on by Mozilla to my Thunderbird, and it can now continue to receive new emails from the server.

To apply this add-on to your Thunderbird email client, click on the link above to go to its download webpage.

Then, click on the "Download Anyway" link and save the file disable_dhe-0.1.2-fx.xpi in your computer.

After that, go to Tools > Add-ons in Thunderbird, pull down the menu button on the left of "search all add-ons" and select "Install Add-on From File..." to install this disable_dhe-0.1.2-fx.xpi into your Thunderbird.

Restart Thunderbird and check if this fix works for you as well.

Auspicious dates for signing contract, register for marriage, etc. in 2016

Here is the list of auspicious dates in year 2016 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.

 

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.

Auspicious dates for marriage proposal or engagement in 2016

Before becoming the life partner, marriage is proposed by lover and engagement is made.

Here is the list of auspicious dates for marriage proposal or engagement in year 2016 (year of Monkey), which is produced based on the Chinese almanac Tong Shu. (Click the image to enlarge)

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.

My Transcend DrivePro 220 (TS16GDP220M) car video recorder

I have been thinking of getting a car video recorder for quite some times, but I just can't convince myself to get a simple camera for a few hundred ringgit just to record down what is in front of my car, until I found this Transcend DrivePro 220 (model no. TS16GDP220M).

I bought it from Rakuten online store at the promotional price of slightly less than RM400, after credit card special day discount, and conversion of some points to additional discount.

It comes with a 16GB microSDHC class 10 MLC memory card that can store up to 120 minutes of Full HD videos.

First of all, being a car video recorder, this Transcend DrivePro 220 has a 3 mega-pixel camera with low-light sensitivity CMOS sensor. The video quality is pretty good in all weather conditions including rainy day. Its night vision is good too.

The recorded video file is in MP4 format. There is option to choose to record in full HD format (1920x1080 30FPS) or HD format (1280x720 30FPS). It will be saved as new file every 3 minutes or longer. When the memory card is full, the oldest file will be replaced in FIFO queue manner. If we want to keep a file and protect it from deletion, it allows up to 15 files to be protected.

It has a 3-axis G-sensor which can detect unusual shaking especially during collision, and will automatically protect the recorded video file from being deleted by recording rotational replacement.

You can also take a snapshot JPG photo by pressing its right most button while it is in recording mode.

The Transcend DrivePro 220 has an internal Li-Po 470mAh battery, which keeps track of its date and time, as well as provide emergency power for emergency recording of up to 30 minutes.

If you enable Parking Mode which will start recording when its sensor detects a movement in front of the camera while it is sleeping, the battery provides the power to run this Parking Mode operation.

What made me finally decided to buy it is its additional functions which make it more than a normal car video recorder:

• Lane Departure Warning System (LDWS) - the DrivePro 220 can analyze the current camera recording and detect the lane line. When you drive at the speed above the preset km/h to start LDWS and your car about to gone off the lane, it will warn you both visually and with a beeping sound. This is useful when you are driving long distance on highway, and you gone off the lane due to sleepy condition.
• Forward Collision Warning System (FCWS) - the DrivePro 220 can analyse the current camera recording and detect any car in front of you which it found is too near to you. When you drive at the speed above the preset km/h to start FCWS, and it detects a car in front of you which is too near, it will warn you both visually and with a beeping sound different from the one of LDWS. However, I found that it is not so accurate in estimating the distance, sometimes the car in front is quite far away, but it will still warn out.
• Speed Limit Alert - the DrivePro 220 can detect your moving speed with its built-in GPS. You can set a speed limit so that it will warn you when you are over speed.

You can set to let its 2.4" screen automatically turn off after some times, so that you can concentrate on your driving and not distracted by its screen display. However, when the unit is functioning with screen off, the LDWS, FCWS and Speed Limit Alert will only beep to warn you, but won't show on the screen what's the trigger. You need to manually press the left most button to turn the screen on to see what happen.

The Transcend DrivePro 220 also has built-in WiFi, but not function to connect to the Internet. With WiFi on, it forms an AP with internal network for smartphone to connect to it with the Transcend DrivePro app to access to its videos, and also gain remote control to change its settings.

You can view the video below to have better understanding of what the Transcend DrivePro 220 can do.

Click here to read about the comparison among Transcend DrivePro 100, 200 and 220.

Malaysia year 2016 national and state public holidays announced

The official 2016 national and state public holidays in Malaysia has been announced by Cabinet, Constitution and Inter-Government Relation Division (BKPP), Prime Minister Department.

There are 14 days of national holiday, and 3 of them fall on Sunday and another 3 fall on Saturday. Most of the states will have around 4 state holidays in addition to the national holidays.

 

Chinese New Year falls on Monday and Tuesday (8th and 9th February 2016). Hari Raya Puasa falls on Wednesday and Thursday (6th and 7th July 2016). Deepavali falls on Saturday (29 October 2016).

 

Click here to download the table of Malaysia year 2016 gazetted national and state public holidays.

Solid state drive (SSD) will soon phase out the traditional hard disk drive (HDD)

Flash memory devices that store computer data using NAND memory chips is gradually dominating the data storage medium.

We have just seen how soon the USB thumb drives replaced the optical discs (CDR, DVDR, Blueray, ...) to become the major removable storage medium nowadays. I believe we will soon see the SSD phasing out the traditional HDD to become the major internal storage medium.

In fact, flash memory is already the data storage medium in mobile devices and slim ultrabook computers nowadays.

Traditional HDD stores data in spinning magnetic discs, and the data read/write is performed with a movable r/w head. Since there are moving parts, there will be wear and tear during operations, which limit down its lifespan. Also, it is fragile to drop or even large physical movement during operations, eg. if you shake your laptop with your hands while its HDD is busy operating, you'll probably cause  damage to the HDD, such as introducing some bad sectors.

The traditional HDD also access data much slower than SSD, which is its main disadvantage against SSD. However, HDD is cheaper to produce, and therefore carries a much cheaper price than SSD, and made available at generally higher storage capacity too.

So, the 2 main reasons why SSD hasn't replaced the HDD yet as of today, are:

• Price
• Available storage capacity

New NAND memory technology that evolves in 2014 will change the game plan. Now, manufacturers including Samsung, Toshiba, Intel, etc. have already come out with multi-layer 3D NAND memory chips, which stakes the flash memory cells vertically in 32 layers or even 48 layers, to achieve a 256 gigabits multilevel cell (MLC) and 384 gigabits triple-level cell (TLC) die that fit within a standard package.

It is said that this approach can greatly reduce the manufacturing cost, at the same time can make available higher storage capacity to SSD. With reduced price and comparable storage capacity with HDD, there is no more resistant for SSD to replace HDD as the major computer storage medium.

Advantages of SSD over HDD including:

• Can package in smaller size
• Less electricity consumption
• Less heat produced during operation
• High grade NAND can have a warranty period of 10 years, much longer than HDD
• Much faster data access speed
• More robust to drop or movement during operation

The diagram below is a Samsung 850 EVO SSD using the 3D V-NAND technology. You will soon find it inside the next generation of Apple MacBooks within the next couple of months.

What should you do to save your life when your building is on fire?

Have you ever think of this question and get prepared when your building is on fire?

I have recently read some notes written by professional firemen in Facebook, and summarize here according to my understanding.

Here we go...

If you are in the same room with the fire, and the fire just started and still controllable, try to extinguish it. If the fire has been burning for more than 5 seconds and the flame is spreading fast, leave the room and evacuate immediately.

If the fire is outside your room (which you probably have no idea where is its exact location), get close to the door, and use your hand to touch the upper part of the door. If you feel the door is hot, it is safer to stay in your room than going out, because there is high temperature outside, and probably accompanied by smokes and poisonous fumes.

The reason to touch the upper part of the door and not the middle or lower part of it, is because the smokes, fumes and heat travel upwards. They might be right behind the door, but you still can't feel it at lower level yet.

However, if the door has little resistant to heat or fire (such as plastic door, glass door, etc.), it might be unsafe to stay in the room. In that case, you should crawl out and move to a safer room (eg. room with wooden door, or better still, fire escape staircase).

If you were to stay in the room, open the window to have fresh air to breath, get as far away from the door as possible, and ask for help from the window, as well as using your handphone.

Do not jump out of the window unless you are staying at ground floor or first floor, because you probably can't save your life by jumping out either.

If you don't feel the heat at the back of the door yet (which means the fire and/or fume has not reach outside the door), or your room is unsafe to stay (door has little resistant to heat or fire), and you decided to evacuate, remember, always go DOWN the building. Do not go up.

This is because the smokes and heat are travelling upwards at the speed of about 3-5 meters per second. They are travelling faster than you, and you probably will get yourself roasted or suffocated if you move up.

You can do a little experiment: light up a candle and put your hand at different positions: on top of the fire, beside the fire, and under the fire. Now you should be able to reason why you should always go down and never go up the building during a fire.