Random Thoughts 没规思

大悲咒

2012-01-13T16:30:00.001+08:00

现在流转的大悲咒有两个版本。一个长，一个短。短的又叫大悲心咒，是西藏佛教转出。这里是长的版本。原来的华文版是65句但用梵（英）文却是63 句。差别是在第7-10句之间。

大悲咒是音译。中国古代的大德对咒都是用音译。我想是和伊斯兰教的可兰经一定要用阿拉伯语念一样的道理吧。又或者如一首广东歌是不能用华语唱的道理一样吧！

现在用华文的读音念大悲咒和古代用唐宋年间的发音念应差的很远。有学者说唐代的发音接近广东音。当然用梵文念也不一定准。这里介绍的发音是从我看过的书抄出来给朋友作为一个参考

	英文依梵文音译	意译
1	Namah ratna trayaya	皈依三宝
2	namo arya valokitesvaraya	皈依观世音
3	boddhi satvaya	菩萨
4	maha satvaya	大菩萨
5	maha karunikaya	大悲者
6	Om sarva rabhaya	Om 一切圣尊
7	sudhana (正教) dasye ( 喜悦语)	具喜悦的正语
8	namo skrtva	皈依顶礼完毕
9	I mom aryavalokitesvara ramdhava	彼洛迦山（慈悲地）圣观自在
10	namo narakindhi haraye	皈依贤、善; 顺教
11	maha vadhasame	大光明
12	sarva athadu sudhum	一切无贪妙净
13	ajeyam	无比
14	sarva satva	一切有情（一切菩萨）
15	namo vastatva	皈依大乐有情
16	namo vaga	皈依大乐童子 (法王子 )
17	mava dudhu (9-17句为赞颂）	天人所亲近
18	tadyatha	咒曰
19	Om avalikelokete karate	OM 观自在大悲者
20	ehre	莲花心 (无贪妙净 )
21	maha bodhisatva	大菩萨
22	sarva sarva	一切
23	mala mala	花蔓（离垢）
24	mahe mahredeyam	大自在心
25	kuru kuru karmum	作法成辨
26	dhuru dhuru	度脱
27	vaja yate	不动尊
28	maha vaja yate	大不动尊
29	dhara dhara	能持
30	dhirini	勇猛
31	svaraya	放光明
32	cala cala	变化行
33	mama （我）vamara（离垢）	离我执
34	muktele	解脱
35	ehe ehe	顺召
36	cinda cinda	弘誓
37	arsam pracali	法王觉身之子 (法王子）
38	vasa vasam prasaya	统治和平
39	huru huru mara	无垢行
40	huru huru hri	如意行
41	sara sara	坚固
42	siri siri	勇猛
43	suru suru	妙色（甘露）
44	bodhiya bodhiya	菩提道
45	budhaya budhaya	觉者
46	maitriya	大慈
47	narakindhi	大悲
48	dharsinina	坚利
49	payamana svoha	名闻成就
50	siddhaya svoha	义利成就
51	maha siddhaya svoha	大义利成就
52	siddhyoge svaraya svoha	相应得自在成就
53	narakindhi svoha	贤爱成就
54	mara nara svoha	无垢妙乐成就
55	sirasam amukhaya svoha	爱摄语究竟无比成就
56	sarva maha-asiddhaya svoha	一切大义利无比成就
57	cakra asiddhaya svoha	转无比法轮成就
58	padmaka staya svoha	红莲花 (妙净义) 成就
59	narakindhi vaga raya svoha	大悲尊成就
60	mavari sankraya svoha	威德自性成就
61	namah ratna trayaya	皈依三宝
62	namo aryavalokitesvarya svoha	皈依观世音成就
63	Om siddhyantu mantra padaya svoha	Om 令我咒句 (圆满) 成就

资料来源：谈锡永的观世音与大悲咒

土方4

2011-12-29T12:28:00.001+08:00

试者风险自负 Try at your own risks

减少血管阻塞 For Clearing the Blood Vessel Blockage

白背木耳两三片 (Black Fungus 2 to 3 big pieces , soak in water to soften b4 cooking)

红枣十粒 (Red Dates 10)

老姜8片 ( old ginger 8 slices)

8碗水煮成一碗 ( 8 bowl of water boiled to 1 bowl )

有些方子有加田七4－5片鸡肉一小块以调味。但肉弃之不食。（optional items, meats and a kind of Chinese herb called 田七 –4 to 5 slices. cut and copy this word to show to Chinese herb shop )

血管有阻塞者，一星期吃两三次，(有糖尿病者要小心，血糖会下降的很快）吃上一两个月后做医检。( drink 1 time every 2 days or daily for serious case for 1 to 2 months For diabetic patients , it is important to monitor the blood sugar level if consume on daily basis。 Some people experience blood sugar drop like a stone)

不可长期当保健品服用。This is not a substitute for Dr’s advise and prescription

小东西

2011-12-11T15:39:00.001+08:00

最近和家人去了曼谷一回。我们在一间叫Siam Paragon 购物中心的底层吃东西。在这一层楼全是卖吃的。有较高档的日本和中、西餐厅也有适合象我们这样普通大众消费的摊档，就是我们这里说的food court. Siam Paragon 称为FoodHALL。

这间food Court 很大很大，里面的摊位很多，但都卖不一样的东西。而且味道都不错，价格也不贵。虽然很多人，但座位在客人吃完离开不到3-5分钟后就会被收拾清理好。我们这里KLCC的food court, 在人多时常就找不到清洁的桌子，食物的水准更免比了。

最让我惊讶的是上图这放纸巾和牙签的盒子。这不是什么特别的盒子，但是放在每张 food court 的桌子就不简单了。牙签和纸巾都有。如在马来西亚的food court,纸巾和牙签不给人拿完或整盒不见才叫奇怪。

是Sime Paragon的管理到位？还是曼谷人的品格素质超越我们了？？？

Beaches - Malaysia Vs Others

2011-12-04T21:06:00.001+08:00

Went for holidays with family last week. So after loading the photos, talking about all the interesting things happened in the holidays, I asked the children whether they noticed any differences between beaches in Malaysia and beaches in Thailand and Bali. They gave some observations like bars , more tourists and cleaner beaches in the 3 beaches overseas they have visited. When up to my turn, I told them the way our beaches are layout into : Sea , Beach, Hotels, Road whereas beaches in Kuta, Bali and the recent beach they visited are layout in the following way: Sea, Beach, Road, Hotels.

When the beach is not "owned" by hotels, things on the beach are most temporary and will be changed according to market demands thus gather to the customers in a fast responsive ways. When hotels are built on the beach , the stretch of beach is blocked out by the hotels and therefore if the hotel failed, it will be more difficult to change the hotel which is a massive structure. While waiting for the hotel to be changed which may take years, the stretch of beach is wasted like the failed Ming Court and few other major failed resort development at the Port Dickson beach.

When beach is not owned by few hotels. More hotels could be built behind the roads on the land near the beach, since all hotels have the same advantage to the beach. When the beach is owned by hotel, the number of hotels that could be built on the beach is limited. therefore later hotel operators would not want to risk because of the blockage. With more hotels competing, room prices are better and services will be better too which ensure good operators survive and bad operator are removed by market forces. In this way, the hotels in resort like Bali are keep improving in terms of value. But the way Malaysia policy and planner done to the beach will only create monopoly or oligopoly type of operations, therefore we noticed high prices and bad services in Malaysia beach resort like those in Kuantan and PD.

The problem with Malaysia beaches is structural and it is really difficult to tackle therefore a country's policy could really affect the country over decades.

On Old Computers

2011-10-08T15:02:00.001+08:00

At last I gave away my old labtop, printer and desktop to 慈济 , the charitable organisation , for recycling.

I felt a bit sayang to put these things to RIP because all could be run but due to one reason or another it could not be used anymore. I realized that while I share in FB against Lynas rare earth factory in Kuantan I contributed partly to the demand for rare earth - a main material for the computers and more so for the Iwhat not, tablets and smart phones.

Computer industry is a terrible wasteful industry. Most computers thrown away not because they are spoiled but are replaced with faster machines because the latest software could not run on the old machines or because we the consumers want the latest even we hardly use 5% of the so called latest features of the bloated software. And the manufacturers do not produce parts for old machines. Take for example my Epson printer above . It is still in perfect working condition but I could not get ink cartridge not even compatible ink so no choice but have to send it for recycling.

The desktop was a Dell of more than 7 years . It mati recently due to some part of the mother board, I believe. I called Dell. Dell told me the company does not store parts for computer more than 5 years. Of course I could try to hunt for a compatible mother board at Digital Mall or Lowyat but then it will cost me another RM300 - RM400 and plenty of time running around & talking to the half pass six computer shops assistants. I might as well save the money , took out the harddisk and put in a USB dock and hook it up to my netbook instead of forking out another few hundred bugs and causing more demand of rare earth.

The labtop in the picture above was bought in year 2000 . At 11 years old it was an old old man in the computer age. It came with a 5 G hard disk - . ( I took out the harddisk before sending for recycling for obvious reasons) Don't laugh, it was not small in those days but now a tiny usb flash drive surpass this storage capacity. The battery is dead but it still could be power up using AC and run on window98 or Damn Small Linux. ( Ha! dual boot for a tiny little thing like this) but it cannot be upgraded due to difficulty of getting compatible parts or too costly to be upgraded. It could be used as a good Terminal in a LTSP environment but none of the school here I know run Linux Terminal Project.

I tried to "sell" LTSP concept to Manfort Boys School, a school gather for the poor & run by the Church, but MBS is too rich to be bother with LTSP. I talked to Divine Life Society but the teacher who taught computer did not reply my call. I thought about government schools and Chinese schools but normal schools are monopolized with Windows base machines and people who manage it will not bother with a non window, low cost , virus free, cost free software systems like LTSP using old PC like this laptop as terminal.

In US and Europe many schools computer labs are run on Linux and /or LTSP with old machines as terminals and these system run better than many new but low grade hardware. Check out the link here & here for examples of schools that saving thousands of $$ by running Linux /LTSP. I believe if a school adopt LTSP and Linux, it could save thousands of $$$$$ which could be put into better use instead of wasting it on the latest hardware and Windows only software. If education ministry encourage schools to adopt this technology, it could spread the use of computer to more rural schools at the same amount of funding.

I really wish some schools here could buy the idea to use Linux/Ltsp and save thousand of $$$$ and reduce the demand for rare earth at the same time.

Some thoughts on people’s servants.

2011-09-27T13:21:00.001+08:00

Dear People's Servants

ONE JOB LESS

Congratulation !!!! You have one thing less to do and worry about. What I mean is that the rubbish collection will no longer be your responsibility as the YB YB have authorized the work to be “outsourced” to some no face people, I mean companies. We the tax payers who pay your and all Ybs' salaries are not briefed and informed thoroughly about this change of job functions as usual.

LESS WORK MORE WORKERS

When my friends and I were much much much younger we had high regards on you because you provided so many essential services to us like electricity, water, education , telecommunication, postal, health care, proper roads, drainage, cleaning up the streets and security and safety. But now, we really don't know what you all are doing other than harassing us and giving us troubles. Most of the services mentioned earlier are no longer provided by you, and yet you all do not lose your jobs. In fact the number of you increased many folds while the works done are getting lesser as your jobs are being privatized or outsourced to some people hiding behind the masks of corporations.

MINISTRIES WITH NO AUTHORITIES

Sometimes I wonder why you still keep the transport minister who manage no major transport systems as the heads of PLUS, KTM, Airport Holding, MAS report to the finance minister via Khazanah /EPF. The transport minister do not control policies too since these are done by a commission or committee. Funny! what type of guy want to be a transport minister ??????

WHAT LEFT ?

What are the essential services still provided by you ? Aammmmmmmm! Let me see :

Security (police),
Protections ( Military) ,
Education
Partial Heath care
Coins and notes aka money supply
dan lain lain …....

WHO RUN THE SHOW ?

With more more jobs being outsourced, who are actually running the show ?????? You ? Or someone PAID by us but unknown to us ; who hide behind the veils of corporate identities ????? Do you know them BTW ?

TOO MUCH TIME

In a company when the staff has to much time to kill, they tend to get into office politics or creating unnecessary works and procedures to justify their existences. Could the same be applied to your work environment ? Many unconfirmed reports said that many of you are on the golf course before 5 PM. Of course these are hearsay and not true, aren't there ?

Of course you are doing many other things. Some of your work including but not limited to harassing us with permit to have a party, tax audit, licenses for all kind of activities, breakdown the door of couples who may or may not making love in the house, arrest without proper reasons and all kind of useless guidelines and sometime idiotic policies like study Math & Science in English from Primary to Form 3 then change to B Malaysia in Form4&5 then back to English for these two subjects in Form 6. What type of pea brains come out with this senseless guidelines ?

Those in the business will have your ear full with more things they face everyday dealing with you if you really listen to them. But listening skill is a skill prohibit to have in the administration , I suppose. But then again I am wrong. People always wrong when against the people's servants.

SERVICES STANDARDS?

With lesser things to do it is very fair for people, I mean your boss, to expect better standard of services that are still provided by you. But alas, nothing seems to be working properly. Few dare to ventures out in the night alone because one could be killed by robbers or snatch thieves or personnel supposed to protect us; fungus are growing in newly built building, water was leaking in newly built building, submarine that could not submerge, raising cost of living not match with raising income, …....... Aiaya just tooooooo many to list down here.

WHO WILL PAY YOU?

You see, most real /genuine businessmen ( exclude GLC , Ali Baba, cables or lopang business) are having troubles paying your salaries and fed up of the never ending tax audit / harassments/labor problems. Many of them have stopped doing business and use the money to play shares or buy properties ( partly explain the share and property boom) or move to Indonesia or any other places that treat them better( that explained partly the outflow of $$$) . So the only people that could pay you in 5/10 years down the roads are the GLC and whatever could be dug out from the ground OR sea. But most GLC are not making $$$ from outside but squeezing $$ from the people with their monopoly position. Do you think the GLC are rich enough to support your ever increasing salary and number in the future ?

WHAT FUTURE HOLDS?

Will we turn into the four infamous 4 P.I.G.S that creating havoc to European financial market ? No! not now but we are going down the same path for sure . When will we join them or join our Philippine brothers to export workers ? Your guess is as good as mine. But I heard the maverick from E Malaysia said the country is doomed to bankrupt in X years time. Could you reverse the trends ? Or could this be the responsibility of the boss, when the workers do not perform ?

Books Fair/Book prices/ kamus

2011-08-29T14:17:00.000+08:00

Went to book fair yesterday and bought these books as shown in photo above.

The books were sold at big discounts than normal at the book fair but still too expensive as compare to standard of living here. Many books are sold in China at about half the prices here . Reading and the sales of books in a country reflect the standard of knowledge of the country and to certain degree - how ready are the work force for a knowledge base economy.

A good government knows that to improve the skills and knowledge of her people, concrete steps need to be taken to reduce the cost of acquiring knowledge and one of the effective way is to reduce the prices of books. Unfortunately nothing concrete have been done despite the political talks of high income society , wawasan what not .

BM Dictionary
Every time I go to book fair I will look for the latest Kamus to see whether an electronic version of BM dictionary is available. But so far none I found except some overprice machine vendors trying to sell the machine with multiple dictionaries .

Even our government body - Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka (DBDP) has not done much to enable the people to learn BM cheaply and easily . May be DBDP is trying to be a profit organisation instead of its goals of improving the standard / usage of national language. Don't believe me ? Try to find a free BM e dictionary to download. And compare to find one for English / German / Chinese. Take a look at this stardict (Link here) website. From here you get links to download almost all kind of dictionary except BM. Don't the DBDP knows that if it is serious in promoting BM, it should make learning BM at no or low cost AND as easy as possible but they can't even produce a BM dictionary in electronic form. Or it can but you must buy it from the machine vendors.

Sad but true!!!

Facts About An Airline

2011-08-22T22:44:00.001+08:00

Many people people wonder why MAS profit can swing from profit in 2010 to big loss in 2011 . Reading the Income Statements of MAS airline may give some clues but not definite answers. But, it point to the right direction to focus.

First the summarized income statement of MAS for the past few years


	Year	2,006	2,007	2,008	2,009	2,010
		RM Million	RM Million	RM Million	RM Million	RM Million
1	Revenue	12,978	14,686	15,035	11,310	12,980
2	Operating cost	(13,608)	(14,413)	(15,198)	(12,203)	(13,324)
3	*Operating (Loss) / Profit (1-2)*	(630)	273	(163)	(893)	(344)


4	Other Income, Finance Exp & Other one time Expenses /Gain such as sales of assets	555	568	428	1,355	626
5	Profit B4 Tax	(75)	841	265	462	282

Let us look at item 3 which is Revenue less your operating costs to show whether MAS make any money from running the actual business. Other than year 2007, MAS never made $ from running the business. The profit for the past few years were generated from other sources such as sales of assets or subsidiary or “aggressive” hedging fuel prices ( i.e gambling to me) and other operating income which is not explained in the financial statements. Most hard nose, down to earth businessman know that such activities are the usual tricks of so called maverick corporate doctors . Unfortunately these type of activities distract & pull the management from really running the business properly and give the shareholders false sense of doing well.

On Privatization

2011-08-19T15:12:00.001+08:00

Some random thoughts came to my mind after reading news on the the signing of “water agreement” by Penang Government

First A DISCLAIMER. I am no economist so whatever I said here are just my concern as a citizen;and things mentioned could be TOTALLY wrong.

These few months mark the tens years on the collapse of Enron which was often quoted, before its collapse., as the success story of the neoliberal free market , privatization and deregulation policies . Enron was the beginning of many later scandals like sub-prime loans and other financial disasters, All these to various degree are the results of privatization and deregulation.

Thousand miles away from USA and 2 decades ago, Malaysia governments ,though said look East, followed the Western idea and policies of the neoliberal and embarked on massive modified form of privatization of public assets. Over the 20 years, we saw the creation of big corporation like TM, TNB,( including the various IPP like YTL Power supplying to TNB) , MAS, KTM, PLUS, POS, Indah Water ….. .

MAJOR IMPACTS - POWER CONCENTRATE INTO FEW PERSONS

What happen when public assets which belong to the citizen were “sold” in the various privatization schemes in Malaysia ? One major and not so obvious result is the concentrating of power to one single ministry i.e. the finance ministry. This means whoever control the finance ministry is the most powerful minister. Take airport for example : Before privatization , the government servant that run the airport need to report to the transport minister . After privatization, the CEO of Airport Holding report to the directors and directors report to the shareholders such as Khazanah and Khazanah in turn report to the finance minister. And the usual MCA Transport minister has no control over any major transport systems because all the CEO of KTM, PLUS, Malaysia Airport Holding can only be changed by the finance minister and not the figure head transport minister. Nothing the MCA transport minister could do if the CEO of these companies give him the m**** finger. With more privatization, more power is concentrate into the PM and the finance ministers and if the PM is also the finance minister , most if not all the power is concentrated to one single minister. We all know power corrupt ….

Could concentration of power in small group of people also cause concentration of wealth in small % of population that leads to high income disparity in this nation ???

Other Impacts

Some of other possible impacts of privatization could be :

	Before Privatization	After Privatization	Possible Impacts /scenario
Ownership	100% own by people or public	Partially owned through EPF & Kazanah	Public do no get ALL the profit, if any, from the assets after “privatization”. A larger portion of the profit could be drained out in the form of political contributions since this is not against Company Act and there is nothing the public can do about it and no info about this is required to be disclosed in the annual reports.
Risks	100% borne by government i.e. public	100 % borne by public as the failed enterprises went back to government as in the case of LRT and MAS	Public bear all the risks & pay for all the abuse & mismanagement. The classic case of Head I win , tail you loose.
Oversight / Scrutiny	Audit by auditor general who has power to report abuse of funds and raise questions on expenditures .	Private auditor who legally appointed by shareholders are appointed by Directors in reality. This means the income of the auditors depends on the directors Private auditors primary concern is TRUE AND FAIR of the financial statements.	Cost over run. purchase above normal market prices will not be reported as long as these expenses are reflected in the financial statements. The private auditors will still issue a clean report because the Financial Statements is true & fair reflecting all the expenses and purchases resulted from abuse and mismanagement.
	MPs can questions Minister and he can question government officers	CEO report direct to Board not minister. Minister can go to the various commission such as the Energy Commission but these commissions have limited power and these commissions has no power to change the CEO of these corporations .	Although still owning the assets , public has no say in the running of the public assets. The valuable assets could be sold for a song and the public cannot do anything about it. As the lawyer would say we the rakyat has no locus standi to the case.
Governance	Follow established civil servants rules and guidelines	Shareholders meets once a year to question the board and board control the CEO once every 2 to 6 time a year in board meeting & CEO control the rest.365 days. Most of the time shareholders are the quiet lots in the general meetings.	Unlike civil services , CEO could change the company rules without consulting anyone as long these rules are not forbid by the board to change therefore very few manager dare to go against CEO. Civil servants could stands by the established rules and regulations
			Shareholders consisted political parties investment arms, government investment arm ( Kazanah..) and other individuals thus the appointment of board members could be politically base and not because they are qualified
			In reality this could happen: The shareholders has no share in the running of the company. The directors may be just a rubber stamp concern only about the fees and the food b4 & after meeting since they know so little about the business. The running of the Corporation could be in the hand of a CEO who could be a political appointee or anyone the board think fit.

SUCCESS OR FAILURE ?

Are these privatization successful ? That depends on what do we mean by success. To some it is just profitability. But to me since these are originally public assets, the privatization should add value to the public to be called successful. Of course, the very word “value”could lead to different opinions and arguments. “Value” here , to me , should fulfill the following:

be efficiently run ie make profit under competitive condition
the public should NOT be over paying for the prices of getting services. Higher prices here refer to the prices per unit against our income and NOT ABSLOLUTE price per se.
profit made should be returned to public in whatever suitable form.

Few would argue that MAS, Indah Water, KTM are BIG failure, measured by whatever criteria. Even the so called financial success like PLUS and TNB are due to their near monopoly position than proper management. Moreover most if not all rakyat are NOT happy with PLUS and TNB and do not think they benefit from these privatization of roads and electricity schemes. For the rest of privatization projects , I will let readers draw their own conclusion.

PENANG / FEDERAL WATER AGREEMENT

We thought having witness the problems arises from privatization both here and overseas, the new Penang government will be more careful & transparent. But, in the recent press release of the signing of the water agreement there are many questions NOT answered by Penang & Federal government even though the new Penang government proclaimed commitment to transparency . Some of the questions that the Penang and federal government should answer :

Is a copy of the agreement available for public comments and viewing ?
How the Penang government ensure quality of water in the future ?
Is there a performance standard where the water quality and quantity could be measured and checked by independent parties ?
If the new company fail to comply with the water quality/quantity standards what are the course of actions Penang people have ?
If this new company went kaput can Penang people get back the water assets like treatment plants/pipes & what not at reasonable costs?
Can Penang government terminate the agreement or this is a one way ticket ?

May be these questions are answered somewhere but personally I have not come across any.

For Compact Camera

2011-07-04T23:26:00.000+08:00

Now a days Tom, Dick & Harry carry dSLR but Puala, Steven and myself don't or not yet !

I have three compact digital cameras. One for myself , one for my wife and one for the children to share. I don't have dSLR simply because I don't need one now . What I need is a tool to take pictures or snapshots to be more precise. Will I buy one in future ? May be yes may be no. Yes – does not mean I want to be serious in taking picture – that may be the given reason. The real reason is most likely to satisfy my ego or man's desire for a more expensive new toy.

Will dSLR improve my picture ? May be yes may be no. Even if yes, it may help to improve 20% at the most but for that I have to pay more than double or even triple than all the compacts I own now. An entry level dSLR with kit lens is about RM2400+- but then kit lens is insufficient for zooming far object so I may need another 70-200mm or 50-135mm lens and that add another 500 to 1000 ringgit.

I want to take macro picture of tiny little thing and the kit lens won't do so I have to add another 1:1 macro lens which will burn another RM100 - 500 Most compact has this thing call digital macro built in and is more than sufficient for most people except photographer Pro or amateur .

A compact can take picture far(digital zoom) , near (macro) but a dSLR need all the additional lens to do it. So, an entry level dSLR with all the lens will cost RM 4000 to RM5000 easily . For the same amount I could have three compact for the family to let everyone having good fun taking pictures at the same time – that is more value than potential ( see potential only) additional 0 – 20% better pictures.

Having a dSLR may even reduce my fun of taking picture. dSLR is so bulky with all the lens and what not that I would most likely leave it on the shelves or in the box instead of carrying it. It is so expensive you don’t feel safe walking around with it in Malaysia given the “low” crime rate according to the police forces here. Most of people who I know own dSLR don't carry their dSLR wherever they go. For people like Steven & me who carry a compact where ever we go, we can say : Don't leave home without it. And, we have more funs.

Man like shopping for gadget as women like shopping for clothes so a dSLR may lead me chasing for the next photographic gadget & distract me from taking picture. Instead of concentrating on taking pictures I may concentrate on shopping for lens and my mind may go like these:

for this evening scene I should buy a faster f1.8 lens
should I get a fish eyes lens or
should I get a really wide wide 18mm ( is there a 18mm lens ?) lens for the sceneries?
I should buy the what not D600 so that I can put my camera real low using a sway LCD view without laying down on the floor

Now you see, I could easily fall into the trap of chasing the next better camera or lens and not chasing better picture and blaming my camera or lens instead of my skills of not getting a good picture.

I think you will agree with me that dSLR is intimating to strangers whom you want to take pictures of. However, people will not pay much attention if you raise your hands with a tiny little camera and stand umpteen feet away from them. As I am not a pro who are trained to sweet talk people to let me take picture, I better stick with a compact so that I can merge in the cloud and take picture without being noticed. You can say I am chicken but I ain't photographer so I can live with it.

‘

You may say a compact camera lack many features found in a dSLR! Yes,I totally agree. Most compact cameras lens aperture seldom go beyond f9 , the highest ISO is 3200 & slow in response …... However, how often we need to go beyond f9 and ISO 3200? Do we need f22 or ISO12800 to take good pictures ?

I have seen really good pictures taken with a compact. Take a look at this web site & let these pictures speak to you

http://blog.naver.com/73052611 Click on those pictures taken with a Ricoh GX 100 by this Korean photographer .

Having said all these , it is nice walking in shopping complex with your neck hanging a heavy dSLR with a long zoom lens; or air travel with it to increase the luggage weight , isn’t it ?

However if you really want one & without it you will …… go ahead buy it. Buying something is not so much a rational decision anyway, so why bother to justify. Man are irrational !

2011.7.5

Repair & Maintenance

2011-06-20T11:55:00.001+08:00

SAME JUNK BUT DIFFERENT MAINTENANCE
I drive an old junk that is > 15 years old. It cost more to repair now than when it was much “younger”. Anyone who own an old junk like me knows that old junk cost more to maintain but not all old junks maintenance cost is the same even of the same model and made in the same year. My old junk cost less to maintain than my friend’s old junk although his old junk is “younger” than my old junk.
Whether the maintenance cost is reasonable could not be sum up by single line that old junk cost more to maintain. Details and good knowledge of the old junk are needed if correct conclusions are to be drawn . Similarly for a transport company where the boss has not much knowledge on the conditions of his lorries and trailers he is at the mercy of his maintenance supervisors/managers if he relies on one liner explanation & does not ask for details information on the maintenance costs and compare that with other transport companies.

OPPORTUNITIES COSTS OR MISS SALES
All good transport company bosses also knows one thing – high maintenance costs is not only expenses alone it meant lost business. Lorries in the workshop for too long could not earn more $$$ for the company. So , to him high maintenance cost of RM1000 mean loss to the company of more than RM1000 . Unfortunately many seems to miss it.

Youngest = Best ???
Many transport companies bosses I met don’t aim to be the owner of the youngest fleet of lorries. They only want to ensure benefit more than costs. Get all new lorries for his company may be good for the ego but bad for companies’ cash flow, interest expenses and high depreciation + learning and training of his drivers are costs that need to be considered.
Like my ex-colleague, Quek San told me: It is better to do many key functions 1% better than your competitor rather to do one thing 100% better than your competitor in a business like retail or transportation. So, to have the youngest fleet could be 100% better than competitors in age of fleets but could also mean loose out the rest to your competitors !!!!

Facts abt 2 airlines

2011-05-31T23:51:00.001+08:00

Recently I read an article on MAS and Air Asia. HERE It prompted me to take a closer look at MAS from the financial angle. However instead of comparing to AirAsia I compare the financial statement of MAS with that of SIA. Why SIA and not Airasia ? The reason is AirAsia being a budget airline has a lower cost structure. Further it is always better to bench mark against a good competitor , isn't it ?

Although one would argue that it is not totally fair to compare the two airlines financial because of the different in companies size and different financial period as SIA financial year ends 31 March and MAS financial year ends 31 December. But in the absence of other info, financial statements comparison serves as a good starting point.

Now let us take a look at the two airlines' INCOME STATEMENTS.

I used exchange rate of 2.2 ringgit to 1 S$. The % shown is % to Sales of various expenses items.

MAS & SIA COMPARISON
	SIA	SIA		MAS
	$S	RM MILLION		RM MILLION
	YE31/3/2010	2.2		YE31/12/2010		Note

REVENUE	12,707	27,955		12,980

Staff cost	2,155	4,740	17.0%	2,164	16.7%
Directors Remuneration	5	11	0.0%	4	0.0%
Fuel cost	4,195	9,228	33.0%	4,384	33.8%
Depreciation	1,714	3,770	13.5%	373	2.9%
Armotisation of Intangible assets	43	94	0.3%	33
*Aircraft maintenance*	*342*	*753*	*2.7%*	*1,467*	*11.3%*	A
Commision	317	696	2.5%	487	3.8%
Landing,parking, & overflying charges	589	1,295	4.6%	246	1.9%
Handling +in flight meal +crew+passenger costs	1,416	3,114	11.1%	1,389	10.7%
*Rental of aircraft*	*553*	*1,216*	*4.4%*	*1,607*	*12.4%*	B
Material/Oth Engineering	375	826	3.0%	71	0.5%
Adevertising & Promotion	210	463	1.7%	93	0.7%
*Computer booking system*				*184*	*1.4%*	C
Insurance	58	127	0.5%	60	0.5%
Compay accomodation / Rental	142	312	1.1%	181	1.4%
Other Operating Expenses	532	1,170	4.2%	582	4.5%
	12,644	27815.92		13,324	102.7%

Operating Profit/(Loss)	63	139.48	0.0%	(344)		D
Derivative Gain				139		E
Finance Expenses (net)	-68.9	-152		-138
Finance Income	49.5	109		71
Other Operating Income	92	202	0.7%	536	4.1%	F
Associated Companies/JV	149	328		18

PROFIT BEFORE TAXATION	285	627		282

Those highlighted in color : blue and red are items that seems to be defy logic and common sense and are further explored below:

A) Aircraft maintenance

MAS is about half the size of SIA or put in another way MAS has fewer aircrafts than SIA but why the aircraft maintenance was so much higher than SIA. SIA use about 3% of sales to take care the maintenance but MAS use a whopping 11% of its sales revenue to service the aircraft. AND not only the % to sales was high , the absolute figure was also higher than that of SIA. I could not help but guess and hopefully I am wrong that someone are getting really rich at MAS and indirectly the nation's expenses.

If MAS could negotiate /control this at par with SIA it would have made/add RM700 million profit

Should MAS management give the shareholders and rakyat ,the indirect shareholders, some thorough explanations ????

But I could guess the explanation:- MAS's planes are older etc etc etc ..... Will you the stakeholders accept such explanations, if any ???

B) Rental of Aircraft

Is MAS leasing more aircraft than SIA ? Could the MAS management provide some details for comparison ????? Why the rental paid higher than SIA both in term of % to Sales and absolute figures. Without the number , one could only guess and wonder ???

C) Computer reservation system booking fees

I could not find similar item in SIA report. MAS auditor or the directors have treated this items separately Are the auditor/directors trying to tell the shareholders to look hard at this RM 184 million . IS MAS paying something other airlines that could avoid ?????????????? Explanation needed ..............................................................................

D) Operating profit; no,not profit it was LOSS

MAS actually was not making $$ but loss RM 344 million in operation if the Income statements was arranged according to SIA format.

MAS audited accounts treated the interest income as operating income . To be consistent with SIA presentation , I put the other income below the operation.

E) Derivative Gain

SIA Income statements do not have this item. Is MAS betting or gambling instead of hedging the fuel prices ???? Will MAS make a wrong bet in the future and change the gain to loss ???

F) Other Income

The total Other Operating Income shown in the Financial Statement of MAS is RM607 million after taking out the interest income and dividends there still left 536 million without detail . This is not a small figures as it take up 4% of sales and without this MAS will suffer a loss instead of profit before tax. MAS management should provide more details and information on this other operating income. In 2009 this was RM265 million.

Is MAS entering into other businesses other than airline without the shareholders approval ?????????????

Well after looking at the financial statements , one would have more questions than answers............................ Answers will most likely unavailable !

A Bridge

2011-04-26T11:02:00.001+08:00

Whenever I saw this elevated highway cutting across the sky , I told myself to take a picture of this. However, when I had that thought I was in the car and had to drive along and the next time when I passed by the same place I would have the same thoughts going through my mind again.

This morning , the traffic was light and the thought pop up before I reached the traffic light so I turned my car to the parking lot in front of the school that face the “bridge” & came down to snap.

Timing is good – very few car then & I like the mood.

2011.4.26

陈皮

2011-03-26T22:33:00.001+08:00

2011.3.26 星期六晴辛卯二月廿二

今天老婆煲红豆糖水用到陈皮，也顺便拿出母亲留下的陈皮放在早辰的阳光下晒。

老婆说妈做的陈皮很香。

陈皮是过年时吃的潮洲焦柑的柑皮。在太阳下晒干后收在密封的铁罐里。然后要时常拿出来晒，再放进铁罐收藏。做法不难，但难在是一份坚持和耐心。因为陈皮要时常晒才会好。晒陈皮时要注意天气。不然下雨时没收好陈皮让雨淋到就前功尽弃。妈在世时做了满满一罐的陈皮。妈当然不是做来给自己。我们回家时她常会给些我们带上来。

妈的遗物中我只特地拿了一些陈皮回来。虽已过了六年，还没用完。老婆说不舍的吃，我明白。

再过几天是清明了！

A Photo

2011-03-10T11:05:00.001+08:00

It was night, I was waiting for J in front of a shop. The broken chair was left there by the shop owner or could be anyone. The chair seems to be telling an unknown story ……………

Malaysia better than USA – toll rate as yardstick

2011-02-17T11:18:00.001+08:00

Malaysian car owners are richer than the car owners in USA that is how our government see and think we are.

PLUS toll rate now for passenger cars is RM0.14 (going to go up , right ?) whereas USA highway ( of course USA Expressway is real express way. Here we disguise some town roads ( such as the LDP) as Expressway) toll rate is about RM0.10 per KM or less.

We pay high toll rate than USA But alas we are not earning US$ .

Source : PLUS Website and for USA Toll – here is the link. You have to convert the mile to KM.

MACC & Dog

2011-01-28T14:15:00.001+08:00

From the reaction seen in Facebook on crudity to a small dog, and no reaction or complete salience so far on Facebook on the resignation of Tan Sri Robert from the MACC Consultation and Corruption Prevention Panel, I can only sigh! Knowing this country is doomed.

It seems we just could not see more than 3 feet from us. We just could not link that a country with high level of corruption could never, may be never is too strong, may be I should say : unlikely to have a civilized society that do not torture animals.

With corruption that goes so deep into every facet of administration, which government body or its officer care about someone that torture a dog. An this type of behavior and many other injustice will not be brought in front of the law.

With corruption, even someone was caught , the person could be freed with some cable pulled and money paid, so torture of animals will never be punished except one or two incidents when the government want it for show. Has the guy that smuggled so many wild animals out punished ? I don’t know.

Why don’t they use the same passion on the poor little dog ON some bigger issue that will help to prevent this type of things in the future??????

I guess the government has been successful. Very successful in producing trained worker but with no education.

Life in KL

2011-01-19T13:51:00.001+08:00

A typical household in KL is husband+wife+2kids. Assuming husband and wife are like us average Joe, the salary will be around RM2000 to RM4000. Let us assume both husband and wife are on the higher side of earning about RM3000 a month. This will be equivalent to most Executives’ or supervisors’ pay package of normal companies. After EPF their take home pay is about RM5340 combined.What will their life be from the money point of view ? I did some assumption and tabulate it below and realize they cannot afford many things like travelling and they have no saving and have no safety net at all i.e they cannot afford any sudden expenditure. If they are not careful with their expenditure, they will owe either credit card company or ah long big time. Here is my assumption:

	RM	Weighting or % of Total
Food & Non Alcoholic Beverages – eat in	500	9.37%	About RM2 per meal per persons for 2 meals at home per day. I think this is not enough but just put it down first lah
Food & Non Alcoholic Beverages – eat Out	340	6.37%	Husband and wife eat nasi campur or equivalent @ RM6 per person for lunch for 20 days+eat out with kids @RM50 per meals for 2 times a month

Alcohol/Tobacco	0	0.00%	Thrifty family – no $ on this
Clothing & Footwear	175	3.28%	School Uniform+shoes 150x2 children; New clothes= 2 new clothes for each person=4x2xRM150 per year+one pair of new shoes @RM300 for husband+wife
Housing, water,electricity,gas & other fuel	180	3.37%	TNB=100+Gas=25+water=30
Furnishing, household equipment& routine household maintenance	30	0.56%	Plumbing+bulbs+ other repairs
Health	100	1.87%	Assuming one person sick one time a year – very healthy family > Each visit RM50+Health Insurance 1000 a year
Transport	800	15.00%	Can't rely on public transport, so need 2 cars . (Petrol = 200+toll=80+parking=100) X 2 person+Insurance/Road Tax
Communication	200	3.75%	TM=100, mobile=100; more often than not this is not enough
Recreation	100	1.87%	Cannot afford makan angin except balik KG + Astro + pirated DVD
Education	320	6.00%	School is so badly run that each kids need tuition for at least 2 subjects at 80 per subject
Restaurants & Hotels	50	0.94%	2 time a year makan at restaurants lah; RM 300 each time.
Miscellaneous	10	0.19%	Friends wedding/Birth day and what not
Car Installment	678	12.71%	One new car bought at 40,000 ( is there any car so cheap?) pay over 7 years+ one old junk bought at RM5K
House Installment	1319	24.72%	Since income is 3000 per month they are not qualified for low cost housing. Although VIP earn more than them own low cost houses. Anyway, single storey house/apartment cost 200- 300K , Assume loan 200K at 5% interest for 20 years.
Car Repairs	133	2.49%	4 services a year, Each services 200so 20042=1200
Day Care	400	7.50%	Since husband & wife are working they need day care for the children; wonder is there a day charge so low at RM200 per child ;so has to assume the day care is a relative loh & ching cai ching cai
TOTAL	5335

Excess	5		hehe One sneeze is gone

Well life is no fun in KL if you earn less than RM3000 a month and has a family. But most people are earning about this or lesser . But alas, I am wrong as TV / Newspapers are saying we are having a wonderful life here. We are approaching high income society,aren’t we?

蓝天白云

2011-01-12T21:23:00.001+08:00

今天有多少吉隆玻人注意到今早的天空是多么的美丽。上几天的天空都是灰灰的让人郁闷的很。今早的天实在让人太高兴了.凡人如我只能偷的那片刻的时间享受那大自然的美丽。

你不需是百万富豪来活在当下,看看蓝天白云!!!!

板面

2011-01-03T12:44:00.001+08:00

板面这个面食是很多女人喜欢的。为什么？我随老婆吃了十多年，到现在我还是不知道。只是知道很多女人象太座一样喜欢。

这一档板面，还适合我的胃口。江鱼仔是不大不小。别的板面档的江鱼仔是粗、咸和腥。这儿的板面不会太厚，不会吃的面粉的感觉。汤甜，不觉的有太多的味精。老板娘说汤是用猪骨煲的，可信度高因为吃了后不会觉的口渴。

在这个年头已很少小贩用猪骨煲汤了！

Books

2010-12-30T11:30:00.001+08:00

Oh This month great achievement is finished three books . Threes or four ? Let me see

1. 吾写又写(1) - 倪匡

2. 青花瓷- 方文山

3. Shop Class as Soulcraft – Matthew Crawford

4. Fooled By Randomness – Nassim N Taleb

So, I read four books. .

The first two books were easy reading. I read them in two separate days. But the last two books took me weeks. Of course part due to my limited English and also the subject matters dealt with in these two books are heavy unless you have the sharp mind and intelligence of which I have neither.

For those who are finishing their general degree or choosing a career, should read Matthew Crawford’s book so to have a different view on what we called “works”.

Nassim book is interesting. Although it is on serious subjects, It read like a distorted humor. yet human and thoughts provocating The final chapter on helicopter accident is like black humor….. Well read it yourself. You won’t regret it.

Nassim’s books sent my mind spinning into another direction and made me wonder on my race in this country. For Malaysian Chinese who thought wealth are everything and could be kept forever in a predominant non Chinese country like Malaysia, they should read the history of Lebanon and see how the orthodox wealthy Christian lost whatever their parent/grand parents built over the century in matters of weeks – a black swan effect. Something of so remote possibility yet it happened and wiped them off together with the once beautiful and rich Lebanon

2010.12.30 – End of the year of many disasters.

Morib

2010-12-15T10:17:00.000+08:00

Went to Morib beach last Sunday. The sand and muddy beach in my memory has disappeared and replaced with this wall and concrete structures of hawkers stalls. One need to jump off the wall to reach the beach. Why our authorities do not like the natural beach why can't these wall and what not be built further from the beach like what the Thai did with their beach. Sigh!!!!

Luckily the weather is good & the sky was blue. People were playing kites. We enjoyed the sea breeze.

It is good to get away from KL for a day.

Pemandu’s 6% growth rate is wrong

2010-12-14T13:51:00.001+08:00

Who am I to say Pemandu figure is wrong ? I am just a layman not economist but I think come to math you don’ need to be an economist to know how to calculate . I shall put down my reason here and let the reader decide .

Why I say Pemandu’s 6% REAL growth rate is wrong? Well, be patient, before we go into that we need to clarify what is real and what is nominal growth rate. As a layman my understanding of REAL rate means without inflation. Nominal means include inflation. or the expert like to said REAL rate means adjusted for inflation which means in layman terms take out the inflation. So if REAL growth is 6%, the nominal growth is definitely more than 6%. To get the REAL figure we have to take away the growth contributed by inflation.

INLFATION AND REAL VALUE

Let us say a thing called A is price at RM1 now and with inflation of 2.8% ( Pemandu said 2.8% so don’t ask me why 2.8%, you can give higher figure if you want) then next year A will cost RM1x (1+0.028)=RM1.028 and 2nd year will be 1.028x(1+.028)=1.056784 then 3rd year is 1.056784x(1+0.028)=1.0863 so you can keep multiply until year 2020 and you should get 1.35495 .

Of course if you have a computer ( of course you have since you are reading this) you can use a spreadsheet program like Excel or Openoffice to calculate using the formula: FV=CVx(1+R)^P FV = Future value i.e price at end of 2010, CV is current price , R is the rate i.e the inflation rate 2.8% or 0.028, ^ is to the power of and P is the number of years i.e 11 here ( from end of 2009 or 2010 till 2020 is 11 years and not 10 years . You see , Pemandu does not know to count more than 10 fingers, just kidding) .You will still get the figures 1.35495 instead of the 长气 method of keep multiply by 1.028.

So for a thing that costs 1000 now will cost 1000x1.35495= 1354.95 in 2020 and to get the value of today’s . price or what Economist called REAL value is to divide the future price in 2020 by 1.35495 if the inflation is 2.8%.

REAL VALUE of RM48,000

Pemandu said RM48,000 is the nominal value of GNI per capital by end of 2020.Why I say it is 2020 price because there is small print (No 1) at the bottom of the above chart that said at 2020 price.

Let us see what is the real value of RM48,000 GNI per capital ?

Base on the above example let us divide 48,000 by 1.35495=35426 The today’s price or REAL value for RM48,000 in 2020 is

RM35,426.

REAL GROWTH RATE IS NOT 6%

2009 The GNI per capital stated by Pemandu is RM23,700 and by end of year 2020 it is RM35,426 (REAL VALUE) so what is the cumulative REAL growth rate ? Use a formula we learned in Form 6 or Form 5 the Rate = ((FV/CV)^(1/P))-1 and REAL growth rate is = ((35426/23700)^(1/11))-1=0.037 or 3.722%.

You can use this rate and do the long winded method BY multiply 23700 with 1.03722 , for 11 times you will get 35426. OR use the short formula [FV=CVx(1+R)^P] mentioned above.

Conclusion: the REAL GROWTH rate is only 3.7% NOT 6% .

Pemandu Can’t Count

2010-12-09T15:56:00.001+08:00

Will you employ people that fail math to keep your accounts books ? You won’t . But the same rule will not apply at national scale. As evidenced in the Pemandu ETP material title Overview. Pemandu experts could not count properly. I reproduced the 1st section of the overview here for everyone’s convenience.

There are two very small print below 2009 in the above pictures, I reproduced below.

1. At 2020 prices, consistent with EPU assumptions for inflation=2.8% and population growth=1%
2. 2009 population 27.9 million, 2020 projected population 31.6 million (EPU projection

The total GNI in 2009 is = population x GNI per capital= 27.9 million x 23,700= RM 661 billion

BUT total GNI for 2020 is wrong = population 31.6 x GNI per capital of RM48,000 = RM1.5 trillion and NOT RM1.7 trillion.

It is interesting to notice that in the subsequent road map , the total GNI are taken out from the above chart.

Am I picking bones ? No, there are more mistakes in their calculation such as the GNI per capital of 15K in 2010 is also wrong. I mean CALCULATION not assumption i.e Pemandu experts do not know how to count or fail in their secondary school math but they are getting million, aren’t they?.

雨珠

2010-11-27T21:00:00.003+08:00

夜雨留下一粒粒美丽的珍珠在那晨叶上。太太拍下了这一粒特亮的。

Sunset@Sg Buluh

2010-11-23T23:14:00.001+08:00

I was driving back from work via the Sg Buluh road and I noticed this beautiful sunset on my left. OH How can I ? So I pull over near the Toyota workshop and shot this beautiful red ball of fire.

书

2010-11-23T12:26:00.001+08:00

去了书展，买了些书。

马来西亚的书比中国，香港，台湾都贵多了。书贵也代表国家的所谓领导不注重知识。国人要增加知识都比其他国家难，这个国家怎样会成为先进国？

Hedge Accounts

2010-09-13T15:59:00.002+08:00

M Co announce a big loss in the first 6 months of 2010 in Aug. Newspaper report it as operating loss and the loss “as result of 44% increase in fuel prices.” However the filing to the KLSE is that the the loss is due to derivative loss which is quite different from hedging . Hedging is always done with the needs of the business and such instruments will enable a stable cost , in this instance, the fuel costs. Hedging is to match the usage not more than the actual or forecast usage.
In this case, auditor treat the derivative loss as non-operating and below the operating gain/(loss) , it implied that M Co has bet more than it needs for the business. Or put in a more layman term it means the Management is “gambling” on the price movement.
Hedging when done properly should even out the up and down of the fuel prices and will not result in yoyo kind of profit and loss changes. Take a look at the following table and notice there is no mentioned of derivative loss /gain at all for one of the top Co in this sector.

Company	S	M	M	A
Year	2009/10	2009	2010 - 6 mth	2009
	RM Million	RM Million	RM Million	RM Million
REVENUE	29,226.8	11,574.5	6,069.2	3,132.9
EXPENDITURE
Staff costs	4,966.6	2,089.2		306.0
Fuel costs	9,647.4	3,497.3		927.8
Depreciation	3,941.7	315.9		447.6
Impairment of property, plant and equipment	14.0	18.7
Amortisation of intangible assets	98.2
*Aircraft maintenance and overhaul costs*	*787.5*	*1,484.0*		410.6
Commissions and incentives	728.0	440.7
*Landing, parking and overflying charges*	*1,353.8*	*1,635.3*
Handling charges	1,805.3	246.6
Rentals on leased aircraft	1,271.7	1,866.8		107.3
Material costs	863.4
Inflight meals	799.7
Advertising and sales costs	483.7
Insurance expenses	132.5
Company accommodation and utilities	326.6
Other passenger costs	299.9
Crew expenses	352.8
Other operating expenses	1,208.7	608.2		43.2
	29,081.4	12,202.7	6,065.4	2,242.5
OPERATING PROFIT /(LOSS)	145.4	(628.2)	3.8	890.4
Derivative Gain/(Loss)	0.0	1,163.0	(160.5)	22.4

Profit After Derivative Gain/(Loss)	145.4	534.8	(156.7)	912.8

Finance charges	(158.5)	(84.5)	(60.9)	(375)
Interest income	113.9			84.5
Surplus on disposal of aircraft, spares and spare engines	58.4
Dividends from long-term investments, gross	75.9
Other non-operating items	78.7
Share of profits of joint venture companies	129.0	-1.7	-1.8
Share of profits of associated companies	213.9	13.4	7
PROFIT/(LOSS) BEFORE TAXATION	656.7	462.0	(212.4)	622.3

The M co actual made operating profit of 3.8 million for the first 6 month of 2010 but this was gone with the loss on the derivative.
The employee and the shareholders should really ask serious questions about this derivative loss because whatever blood and sweat put in by the hard working employees will be wipe off by some stupid management decision just because someone thought they could foresee the oil prices in the future!!

ONE MORE POINT

This financial statements also tells us one important aspect - M Co had not invested much or done anything fundamental to improve the business so to sustain in the long term as reflected in the operating loss and thin operating margin. Most serious businessmen know that business could only perform well in the long run if the operation is making profit. Otherwise whatever one time gain or in this case relying on luck and betting on the prices of future fuel could only yield one off gain ( or loss ) & the CEO maverick better move to join politic because he knew for sure next year his luck may not be as good. Sigh!

Astro Replacement

2010-08-01T21:50:00.001+08:00

It is time to cut away some of the program on Astro - see the picture - even without a LCD/LED TV, you still can hook it up to the Internet and watch CCTV or any TV channel you can get from Internet. Of course some of you may already using PPS to watch all your favorite Korean, HK or Taiwan TV Series on your laptop. But a fast speed > 5M Internet make it a pleasant experiences watching high definition movie over the Internet as if you are watching a DVD. - no buffer no delay - Great!!!

Let us do some costing

Upgrade from 1 M to 5 M Internet will cost additional = RM 40
Less Astro on Demand , 3 Mini Series =RM10 to 40

So there is no additional cost if you terminate all the mini packages and Extra of Astro and replace with high speed Internet which on top of the high speed you get a TV setop box to watch few program not available in Astro But TM offering on the IPTV is very limited and looking at the track records of TM it will takes months if not years for her to add more contents to the IPTV but you can always hook it to your laptop or better still the Mini Mac or Dell Zino

Time to teach Astro a lesson !!!!!!

Linux11 Offline Blogging - ScribeFire

2010-07-14T17:54:00.001+08:00

There is one thing MS did well and beat the hell out of Linux. That is offline blogging tool. Many off line blogging tools of Linux just do not have the features like fonts and loading images or just do not work with Blogspot,com.

I am using ScribeFire - an extension of Firefox in Linux to write this post and see whether it works with Blogger.com.

Well needless to say the Chinese Fonts looks horrible like this 庚寅年，六月

2010。7。14

The post works if everything is typed in ScribeFire but if I cut and paste from openoffice it will then give all kind of html code errors when the post is sent for publish. Now let me trying adding some picture

The image is missing . Aiay what happen ? Try one more time

It works this time. Let me post again

Actions

2010-07-02T15:05:00.001+08:00

Malaysia will have No future if NO changes are made in the policies and administration. And, time is running out if no action is taken – according to my an old friend who is putting a lot of effort to get eligible voters to register themselves to vote. See this web site I praise his efforts.

So any Malaysian who are not voter should register as voter. And if you are voters but have not voted in the last GE Please do so in the next GE. !!!!!!

You can also check out this website too for registration events

http://dosomethingepic.net/

Linux 10 – ICT /books- India, China & Malaysia

2010-06-17T14:45:00.001+08:00

I was reading the LinuxforU magazine the other day and suddenly it dawn on me that this magazine is from India. I always base on the level and variety of publication to access the knowledge, skill and cultural level of a place. And this is telling me something more fundamental issue of the ICT industry in Malaysia, China and India.

I worked in China for 2 years and I did not notice any Linux magazine in China whether the magazine is in Chinese or English. China has more magazine published than Malaysia. The prices of books and magazine in China are much lower than Malaysia. I believe this is more than a market driven result. China policy makers must had made conscious decision to push the prices of books/magazine down so that knowledge could be easily and cheaply obtained. And, this has helped the working population move forward in a much faster pace than surrounding Asian countries.

Books /magazine in Malaysia are very expensive against the average earning of Malaysian. The stupid BN governments I believe still impose tax/import duties on books and magazine. This is a real stupid policies. and contribute to a non-learning –non-reading society. Most of the young Malaysian executives I encounter in my working life hardly read.

Although lately I notice some enterprising business people have started to print foreign magazine here to reduce the cost and prices similar to what the Chinese are doing in China. This is good move and hopefully this will cover more magazine like National Geographic etc.

Now back to the issue of Linux magazine. This LFU magazine cost me RM19xx – not cheap but still the cheapest among all the Linux magazine on the shelves. The current May issue came with 2 CD . One with 100 episode of Video instruction on Gimp (a free Photoshop equivalent OSS software) that itself is worth the price of the magazine. China despite the fast industrial development is lack behind India in computer and a Linux magazine itself though not conclusive could be a good indicator the state of the progress of the computer industry. Looks like China will still be under Bill Gate for many more years to come while the rest of the world is slowly but surely moving a little a day from the tyranny of a single vendor environment. And Malaysia,? Aaiyaaaaaaaaa you know lah ! Try to find a programmer that could program in python in Malaysia, If you could get one let me know. And I bet many business/government people in Malaysia involve in approving million of IT spending will ask :

Linux what Linux?

2010.6.17

2010-05-09T14:31:00.001+08:00

Linux 8

Spent almost whole day to check out whether the offline blogging tools in Linux has improved. But aiya still the same . Bleezer & blogilo do not work with blogspot; can't get them access the blog server at all. Drivel just crashed and BlogGTK did not even show up after clicking the menu item.

The only software that can submit a blog to blogspot in Linux so far is the Gnome Blog but this is very basic screen with limited capability on the looks and inserting picture is a pain.

2010.5.9

Oh!

2010-03-29T10:43:00.002+08:00

2010.3.29

OMG What happen to this land ? One clan is lead by a murder suspect and another clan is lead by Vigra spokesman. We are doom, aren't we ?

LInux 7 - why I still use Windows

2010-01-27T09:33:00.002+08:00

Although I use Linux during most of my personal computing time; sometime I still have to go back to Windows. The list of Windows only reasons used to be very long but it is getting lesser to the following few:

1. Scanner.

My flatbed scanner Samsung 4200 @ home and document scanner Scansnap S300 in office only work with Windows. Although Samsung 4200 works with Linux at one time , it doesn't work anymore after I upgrade the Ubuntu. There are ways to make it work but I just couldn't be bother with all the lengthy steps at this time.

2.Accounting software- unfortunate there isn't anything similar to Peachtree and Quickbook in Linux. Whatever available is either too complicated like OpenERP or too limited functions for meaningful works or too expensive or lack of support locally. All the Linux geek out there couldn't be bother with mundane staff like accounting - too bad - like the vegetable sad ( this is a nonsensical rhyme from my children).

3. Offline blogging - haaa It is shame but Linux community attention is not here ,I suppose, so I am still using Window's Live Writer to blog now and most of the times.

4. Nokia PC suite - stupid Nokia did not bother to come up with a Linux version of PC suite and let MS nipple the smart phone market freely and I have to use this thing to sync my N95 to my computer.

Well these are the four things that force me back to Windows but then again I still think Linux community has achieved the status that few people think it is possible a decade ago and hopefully I could remove these 4 things sooner.

2010.1.27

Linux5

2009-11-26T12:13:00.002+08:00

Linux could never be very big in Malaysia government sectors IT . Don’t believe me ? You can check it out yourself at the Malaysia Administrative Modernization and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU). IRB who harass income tax payers in the past present and definitely future , never save a single cents in adopting OSS. Not only that, all the submission to IRB is Window bias so in directly marketing for Microsoft.

It has proven as far as technology is concern Linux is at par with Windows but the paradox is that because Linux itself is free, it could never be popular at the desktop level for the government in Malaysia. Not logical aah? But that is life in Malaysia.

A normal PC costing less than 3K could end up 2 to 3 times that when purchased by the government base on the latest government auditor report so if this software is free, how are all the crocodile going to get the $$ ? You tell me.

2009.11.26

Anger

2009-11-26T10:00:00.001+08:00

New Chinese blog entry at

http://up49.spaces.live.com/

2009.11.25

旅行看啥？

2009-10-16T11:20:00.001+08:00

如果是自助旅行，除了看景点，我也会逛逛菜市，书店，留意那个地方最高的建筑物和看看报摊上卖什么杂志较多。

每个地方的菜市都不一样，有整齐，清洁的也有杂乱肮脏的。但从菜市所卖的东西我可以多多少少知道这地方的人吃什么多，也可以知道这地方吃的文化和生活水准在那一个水平。如果在菜市里卖的种类不多，东西不新鲜，那么那里的生活水准也不会高到那里去。有时菜市也会有一些惊喜。我吃过最好吃的香肠是在德国，柏林的一个菜市里的小摊子。

如果菜市是食的反映，那么书摊和书店就是阅读文化的指标了。人最基本的需要是食物。如果吃已经很好，那么除了吃那这个地方的人会放时间在那里？书摊上卖的杂志是那一种比较多？虽说在网络盛行的年代，很多阅读已转至网上，但书本还是占阅读相当重的比例，所以逛书店还是可以看的出那地方的文化。有些地方的书店办的很好。去台湾，台北而不去诚品书店是入宝山空手而归。看了诚品书店才知道原来书店可以办的那么好。

一个地方的高的建筑反映了那地方的权力的重心点，也是那地方的人要别人看到一面，也可解读为那地方的人生活所追。在吉隆坡最高的建筑是双峰塔。这建筑原是前首相要向世界表现他的成就而建的。做的时候没有想到用处，建好了才硬硬的将国家石油公司搬过来。从这个建筑也反响了马来西亚的领导们的虚华不实，不顾效益的作风。当然也从这看出目前这国家只能靠石油和其他原产品来维持门面了。

离开吉隆坡几千里的上海也有很多高的建筑。上海高的建筑从以前的商业楼如恒隆到现在的财金大楼如金茂等，展现出这个城市从追求外国名牌到炒股，和替银行打工(借钱买楼，买车）的过程。陆家咀的财金大楼正是现今这城市追求金钱的反影。

2009。10。15

金马仑高原

2009-09-24T13:12:00.001+08:00

从马六甲回来,还有一天假,就带小孩们去金马仑高原.

几年没去, 高原比以前多了游客,没那冷; 但还是在20多度.

在Boh 茶园喝茶,看茶园四周的的景色, 还是人生一大乐事.

2009.9

PD 半日游

2009-09-23T22:12:00.002+08:00

开斋节假期, 回马六甲老家, 顺便和家人去波德申海滩玩玩. 去到时,小雨刚停, 游人不多.

虽然海滩已不复当年的美丽,清洁但常年在城市的孩子们一样玩的高兴, 千呼万唤才很不愿的从海里上来.

我的思潮如海, 想起从前,想到过两天是母亲的忌日, 更觉如一叶小舟.

2009.09

生命,时间 Time & Life

2009-09-09T12:30:00.000+08:00

人为妇人所生, 日子短少, 多有患难…

我们一生的日子是短少的. 我们一生没有多少时间是真正是自己的. 如我们除去那些我们认为不是自己喜欢的时间或不自觉的时间. 我们所剩的时间有多少?

How much time do we have in life ? I mean the time you are aware of it, mindful of it and enjoy it. Let us say we take out those time we do not enjoy ourselves like working/study since most of us do not enjoy our work when we work and we do not enjoy our study when we are schooling. If you rush in the morning and you do not enjoy your breakfast and just tug something into your mouth during lunch, then these time are not your time. I did a simple calculation and below is my finding:

Time of Life

	Years

Average Life Span	75	years

Sleeping Time	25	years; assume 8 hr a day

Cleaning	5	years; assume 1.5 hr a day for brush teeth, bath, toilet

Don.t know what is happening time	3	assume we are self aware at 3 years old

Travelling Time	5	assume 1.5hr a day

Wasting time	3	1 hr reading papers/ TV nonsense

Eating time	8	lunch/dinner/bfast say 2.5 hr a day

Working Hr	9	9 hr a day for 25 years

Study Hr	6	6 hr a day for 15 years

TOTAL TIME	64

Time Left todo things you want	11	years

Assuming average life span of 75 years, we have only 11 years for ourselves, our love one, our family. This 11 years is on the high side because this calculation has not include time spent on other time wasting activities . Most of us would spend more than 1 hour a day of doing nothing but on trivia matters. Many spend more than 2 hours a day on travelling to /from work. So , if you do not enjoy your work, get out and do something, because that is almost 9 years of your life.

如果平均活到处75岁, 那么我们只有差不多10年的时间是给自己,家人, 所爱. 这10年数字是高估的, 是过于乐观的,因为有很多活动的时间都没算进去. 我们通常花太多时间在不重要的事, 开不知所芸的会, 在无所事事.

人生无常, 人生苦短, 别苦着脸,笑笑过日子, 去做有意义的事!

2009.9.9 - 长长久久

Can or cannot

2009-09-04T12:52:00.001+08:00

Can this country progress ? or cannot. Bolih tak boleh?

A more than 30 years old friend started to blog http://care4mal.blogspot.com/ recently. After reading his blog, I just could not help but feel sad or rather a mixture of feeling about this country. He care about the country so he is trying his part. For me, I am more of a pessimistic. To me this country has started to rot since the 70s after the black Friday when I was still very very young. Some of the things I observe over the years:

1. The brain drain and the brain split. I was from 5 Science 1 in my secondly school. This is supposed to the top of cream of the students for the year. By now more than 0ne third of my male non Malay classmates had migrated. The Malay classmate then were transferred to all Malay Boarding school during these period so I lost all my Malay friend from then on . I have checked around with my younger friends who were in the top class of their respective schools Base on my limited samples I concluded these pattern of migration had continued for the pass decades and the Malay top students were secluded from the non- Malay and some were sent overseas or some exclusive school in group and indoctrinate with what ideology is anybody’s guess during their value formative years. The previous generation of mixing the race in a single schools is gone. Yes there are different race in the schools but the top brains who will rule this country in future received no chance of mixing around with the other race. They were captured in the name of race or whatnot to a secluded world made of a single race and Do you still expect them to be for equality for all race or single race dominant thinking ?

2. Corruption. Much have been said about this. But the thing that worry me is that those corrupt here do not feel ashamed of what they are doing. Unlike say Japanese/Korean corrupted officers, they knew what they did were wrong. Here, they are proud of it. Years ago those corrupted will ask you to throw the money in the bush and they would collect them later. But now many will confirm that the )&()&$#$ ask for it openly without feeing ashamed. To add more salts to the wound, now even with all these duit kopi, things still could not get done as compare to Vietnam and other countries. No wonder so many business are moving out of Malaysia.

3. Capital Flight. No official statistic confirm this but I am observing big investment by listed companies in overseas, MNC closing the factories here and SME are moving the business and the capital for doing the business out of this country slowly but surely. These are what I call good money against those bad money coming in which are not for productive use but mostly in stock market and real estate. This type of in flow money do not create wealth for the country but accelerate assets inflation and cost of living and inflation. In Singapore you can see good money went in to create jobs and investment in R&D facilities, new high tech factories wherealse the money came here went into the condo units around KLCC.

4 Pea Brain Leadership. Well you open the papers and you know you do not need Mad Magazine to entertain you anymore. The politician and the talk through their a(^(^@# ministers will drive you nuts now a days

5. The collapse structure. Yes, the check and balance between the Executives, the law makers and the Judicial was destroyed many many years ago by the Big tir. What more can I say ?

6. Social order : Despite what the stupid , nothing between the ears police chiefs said about crime rate, anyone who have been to HK, Japan , Shanghai Singapore will know KL/JB are more dangerous to live in.

7. Well, you know and I know, a very very small % of the population is controlling a big big big % of the country’s wealth. – this is a sure sign of trouble soon if the trend continue and it is still continuing.

8. Competition. Decades ago, there is no China, India, Vietnam , Brazil and Eastern Europe to compete for brain, capital and customers. Now even Indonesia is doing better than us. With the standard of education keep dropping, very soon we may need to join the rank of the Philippine mates to export ourselves to other countries in order folks back home could have a decent living .

Can all these be address? Can or Cannot ??????????????????

2009.9.4

短片

2009-09-03T10:46:00.002+08:00

远方的朋友们,

以下的一个网站的短片或许能让你们看到游客看不的马来西亚.

http://15malaysia.com/films/langswitch_lang/cn/

我个人比较喜欢已故导演 Yasmin Ahmad 的 Chocolate 和陈翠梅的 One Future 所以放在这里和大家分享.

众神之岛 - BALI 2

2009-08-31T16:54:00.001+08:00

巴厘岛对旅客吸引力几十年不减. 她的的魅力在那? 是美丽的沙滩?

是 Ubud 市里 Ibu Oka 好吃的烧猪饭 (Guling Babi) ?

还是那沈睡的火山 ?

或是那百年古寺庙? 我想都是,但最重要的是对环境的一种坚持. 岛上的建筑都不能高过四层, 也就是椰树的最高点. 这是为了保持景观. 不让现代破坏了SKYLINE 和传统.

2008.8.31

众神之岛

2009-08-28T18:32:00.001+08:00

这个女孩专注的做着大多数巴厘人,每天早上做的一件事:- 将鲜花做成一个心轮以代表平静和美丽,献给神灵.这些鲜花会放在神灵经过的地方,如屋前,十字路,桥边,当然庙和神象前.

巴厘人信兴都教而不是大多数印尼人信的回教.他们相信一草一物都有神灵,都应受到尊敬.因在古时和中国人经商,他们的信仰也混合着中国人的一些信念.如人应和自然共处.每年的三,四月间会有一天是全岛休息日.游客只能呆在酒店.全部商店都关店一天,连机场也停止操作.大部份的家里都不生火,禁食.这一天是真正的休息日.

2009.8

土方3

2009-08-03T12:44:00.002+08:00

土方3 －减低高血压

风险自负

六粒柠檬，留皮，去种子，切成小块＋三十瓣去衣大蒜头+250ml 的水，放进锅煲15分。不用煲太久，不需煲沸以保留维生素。待凉后放进搅拌器，搅拌成糊状，装进玻璃罐。收在冰箱。每天早晚拿一汤匙混水喝。

食用两个月后可试减少吃降血压药的份量，如果血压不升，保持，那可慢慢的减少降血压药的份量。如血压回复正常，可在医生指示下停止吃药。

2009。8。2

失恋

2009-07-17T21:09:00.002+08:00

失恋

小朋友失恋，问我如何忘忧？让我想起那久远的往事。是的，失恋的味道已很久远了。久远的似乎没有这些事了，久远的连情人的名字竟差点忘了。某一天不知何事，想起往事，竟记不起初恋人的名字。好久才记起。觉的有点怕，不知是人已开始老了，还是真的对曾是刻骨铭心的这一段感情完全放下了。失恋的滋味不好受，因为去到那都似乎有那人的影子。第一次失恋难受，第二次也不好过。但第二次会比较乐观，因为知道这种苦终归会过去。也知道恋爱只是人生的一部分，还有很多美好的事情。失恋过的人，比较能放的下，不会那么执着；知道人生有些东西就算你如何努力也是徒然，知道什么叫无奈。

人生有点残缺，似乎更能看到美！

2009。7。17

HCMC 2009 Vs 1991

2009-07-14T11:16:00.001+08:00

2009.7.9 -胡志明市

4天三夜匆匆来去．在开会,看厂,看港中觉的2009的西贡是乎多了些繁华,少了些人气, 添了些冷寞.

不知名的桥景 Vietnam Petroleum Building.

机场剧院

西贡-1991年应是12月.

翻开尘封影相，原来1991 年的西贡给我印象深的是那些对生活充满希望的人.

当年这些人,现在的生活是怎样了?

很高兴街童卖邮票的情景不在

勤劳的妇女

当年美丽的导游有多少个孩子了?

Life is fragile

2009-06-24T09:28:00.001+08:00

Kow Ching Kiak, passed away on 2009.6.15.

He was my immediate superior for more than 7 years and later we became friend after we were no longer colleague. And, the friendship ended yesterday or should I say it never end. In reality he was more than a friend; he was my teacher who showed me the human side of running or managing a business & the uncertainty and fluidity of business where procedures which were right at certain situation were wrong in different circumstances.

Life is short and fragile. He and I plus few friends were having drinks just last week. And he is gone forever now.

Life is fragile.

Memory flash back:

1) Car - I first met him in Hankyu Jaya 1989 Oct, I think it was Oct. He & I were the two recruits by our boss from outside Hankyu Jaya.The first week he started work or may be the 2nd day he drove his Honda City and brought me to Ampang Park sales outlet. It was a funny sight with him who was quite big size squeezed inside a small car. Of course few months later the boss bought him a bigger car. However the image of him squeezed inside a tiny Honda City stuck in my mind. The first thing that impressed me was his driving style, he liked to swirl in and out of traffic.

2) Tea - He used to hold informal meeting with managers in his room over Chinese tea. He would brew the Pu Er and pour it into the small tea cups and exchange idea/info during those session. Of course the Pu Er was cheap then but the price of Pu Er now is many many time the prices those days. I joked with him once that if the Pu Er we drank may be worth a BMW at today's price. Well during these tea session we formed policies, exchaged ideas among the managers.

3) Style - he was a short temper guy by nature but experiences had taught him to slow down and delegate. He emphasis on people, immediate and short term and I am more systems, policies orientated and see the business on a longer term and strategic basis. He talked better than he wrote and I need to write down my thoughts on paper before I could communicate. Although the style were very different we could respect each others and together with other managers we formed a good team that drove the business to a greater height. But alas, we were like the turkey that was fed for X mas, one fine day the feeding stop and turkey was sent to the butcher - the business was sold by the the boss or his family. Well he and I did know then what was coming towards the end but the timing was faster and he might be more prepared with his experiences.

2009.6.16

土方1

2009-05-29T12:09:00.001+08:00

试用者风险自负!!!

胆结石七天自然疗法 (可省下一点开刀费)

第1天- 6 天吃六七粒萍果或喝 1000 cc 的萍果汁

第7 天, 正常饮食到中午. 下午13:00PM 后禁食,(一定要禁食不然没有效) 可喝白开水.

晚上6PM, 喝250cc 泻盐水(epsom salt)注:虽然大部份人可喝泻盐, 但不是每个人都一样.

8PM , 再喝250cc 泻盐水

10PM 喝125cc 纯柠檬汁(或Grape Fruit也可以) +125cc 橄榄油(extra virgin olive oil),混合着一起喝. 然后马上睡觉.

胆石会随着排便排出来.胆石是深青色会浮在水面.

第八天回复正常饮食.

友人试过两次都有效, 一个亲戚试了但没效,可能胆石太大粒了.

乱看论语

2009-05-06T23:24:00.001+08:00

三本论语

1997 年一位信一贯道的同事，黄小姐送了一本四书心德（论语全）给我。台湾这一贯道很搞笑，满天神佛，并牵强附会的从论语里的一句话“吾道一以贯之”将孔子当做传给他们心法的祖师爷之一。她可能觉的我这轻浮之人需要这本书吧！这本书的是孟颖（这个可不是搞表演的那个）注释的。里头用了很多宋儒和理学家的东西，我看了几页觉的酸的很，觉的这个人称至圣先师的孔子也太过死板了。这本书就被放在书架积尘了。

2006 买了傅佩荣先生的 解读论语。这本少了那些理学家的东西，比较能接受，但也没看玩就去上海做工了。

2007 年在上海买了南怀瑾先生的论语别裁，不过还没看就和其他的书一起拿回来。

2009 年花了几个星期，走马看花似的看了南老先生的那本。前后超过十年才看完20篇论语。

这三本论语的解释在某些句子有很大的不同，如这句 “无友不如己者。”

四书心德的解释是：“即勿交德行不良之友，。。”

解读论语的解释是：“不与志趣不相似的人交往。。”

论语别裁的解释是：“不要认为你的朋友不如你。。”

南先生的解释比较合我的胃口。不然孔子就如我们广东人说的白鸽眼，看不起人，不是有教无类的圣人了，也和论语里的三人行必有我师有冲突了！

2009.5.6

语录

2009-05-03T22:52:00.001+08:00

君子之交，其淡如水，执象而求，咫尺千里。问余何适，廓尔忘言，华枝春满，天心月圆。－李叔同

适耕庄半日游

2009-04-12T21:38:00.001+08:00

周日早上没事,忽然决定去带小陔去离家约1小时半的车程的适耕庄看看. 这是鱼米之乡,靠海也盛产米. 这里的华人陪植了台湾品种的稻米但国家垄断的稻米公司不会向这稻农收购这种米. 在马来西亚这种以种族来决定政策是说也说不完.

下面是Google Map 的链接

View Larger Map

我们随意的逛, 无目的进了这条稻田小路. 啊! 好美的稻田.

太太使了她的交朋友的功夫, 从一些老人家里找到那里可买到米和吃海鲜. 原来我们走的小路就有一个米商. 就转去买米就去吃海鲜. 食物味道不错,价钱不便宜也不贵.

忘了拍炒鱼的照片. 只好拍晒鱼的照片.

2009.4.12

Langkawi 浮罗交怡 3

2009-04-03T22:35:00.001+08:00

吃

14.3.09

午餐 - 在一间咖啡店, 随便吃些面. 这里食物的价格接近吉隆玻的价. 以这里的生活水平算是贵的.

下午茶 - 在一间叫 Suncafe (照片不是当天拍的) 的餐厅 , 喝咖啡, 喝茶. 老婆点了蛋糕

和面包儿子点了水果雪糕

女儿点了另外一种雪糕 . 我平常都不让孩子吃冰冷的东西. 出来玩就让他们高兴吧. 这里的食物色香味都很好; 吉隆玻很多西餐厅都比不上.

晚餐

晚上驾车去离开酒店 20 多里的市区找了一家在网站 www.tripadvisor.com 有很多人推荐的 Wonderland 中餐大牌档吃饭.

这种贝, 我们叫 "啦啦" , 煮出来的味道一般般. 这个咕噜鸡肉

也不合我们的口味. 幸圬这条烧鱼还算不错, 空心菜还可.

总的来说名过其实. 这个水准吉隆玻随便都找的到.

这里的客人很多是老外. 想老外不会吃中餐, 而在网上推荐也多数是老外吧.

15.3.09

早餐在酒店吃. 这里的早餐还算丰富. 面包都有4,5 种.

午餐

从水底世界出来,就转回 Suncafe. 这次还是咖啡,茶 , 果汁.

Pizza 意大利面和鱼嘻,吃了一

口才想起要拍照. 好吃!!!也好看!!

晚餐.

这次不要走到市区吃了. 太远了. 我们驾车到附近的 Pantai Cenang 逛. 这里有很多的餐馆,食档.最后选了一间叫Rasa的餐馆. 这是一间马来+泰国菜式的餐馆.

椰水(光不足, 相机不好, 技术不够, 拍的不好) , 果汁 ; 烧鱼唔! Yummi 好吃! 这是 Tomyam 泰式辣汤- 香,味都不错. 空心菜, 这是青芒果加辣椒,葱之类又酸又辣!

这样好吃的菜, 每个人都吃的下一碟饭 .

16.3.09

早餐也是在酒店吃.

午餐时"大人" 要挣取时间血拼只能在市区内的一间食店随便吃些炒面之类.

下午茶- 还是回去 Suncafe. 替女儿点了这卖相不错的奶昔, 也点了茶,咖啡,果汁和一个

沙拉和加这个嘻!!不知道中文叫什么.

晚餐

本想回去昨晚吃的那间RASA, 可是天不昨美,要下雨, 而且店员告诉我们那些鱼是昨天卖剩,今天的鱼还没到. 懒的等,最后转回Suncafe. 这次点了意大利面,鱼,还有一客羊肉 (羊肉在面包下) ,

鸡 (灯光不足,拍不出味道) 不过食物的味道和卖相俱佳.

完

Langkawi 浮罗交怡2

2009-04-01T19:11:00.001+08:00

玩

带小孩子来玩可不能四天都在沙滩. 除了海边, 可让小孩高兴的就是坐缆车上这里最高的小山. 这缆车的斜度是42度,而且速度很快.

来到缆车站, 发现售票处贴着 - 缆车坏了,在抢修;要过了下午才会好,但工作人员也不能确定时间.

转过身发现了这个布条这也太过搞笑了吧! ISO 9001 的可信度和权威性和街边印证书的小档一样了; 只是比较贵.

水底世界

不要等, 驾车去水底世界.

哗! 门票超贵. 如果不能出示身份证就当你是外国人,那就更贵了.!!!

里面当然有海星, , 海胆 , 水母

也有非洲企鹅, 和很多不知名的鱼 . 孩子看的开心.

再回缆车

从水底世界出来, 打电话去缆车站查问. 缆车已修好了!! 去到缆车站,已大排长龙.

缆车出站时,见到天空已乌云密布, 可能会下雨了. 上到山顶, 发现和地面有温差, 风也很大.

从这里看海, 景色不错可惜要下雨,无暇观赏.匆匆下山.

待续... 下期说:吃

Langkawi 浮罗交怡1

2009-03-23T22:18:00.001+08:00

2009.3.14-17

学校假期和老婆孩子去浮罗交怡一游.

小麻烦

在机场 check-in 时才知道儿子虽不满12岁也需出示身份证明, 我们以为在国内是不用,所以没带他的身份证;但那办登机的职员只是警告我们,最终也让我们登机 - 有惊无险!

岛

浮罗-是音译土语Pulau,是岛的意思. 交怡也是音译Langkawi,意思是红鹰; 浮罗交怡就是鹰岛,所以这里的码头有一个大鹰的像. 这里的天空也常看到鹰在自由的飞.

这岛还有一个传说 - 很久以前有一位美丽的姑娘 Mahsuri. 她被岛的人(可能是得不到她的人或是妒忌她的人)诽谤她通奸而被处死. 她死前说如她清白,她的血是白的而且这岛会被诅咒七世.被处死时，她流出的血是白的,而她死后, 这岛被泰国军侵占, 火烧米仓, 稻田. 听说有些被烧焦的米至今还能被找到.

当群众疯了，失去理智，被一种思想，主义或宗教控制，而没独立思考的能力时是很可怕的！

沙滩

我们选的酒店在上图左下角或岛的西南方的海边. 这里的海潍叫Pantai Tengah. 这个沙滩和附近的 Pantai Cenang 是这岛最好的也最多酒店在这.

当我们放下行李走去酒店后面的海边时,可吓了一跳. 那沙滩实在太多垃圾. 幸亏第二天有清洁工人打扫清理了. 下面左手是第一天我们看到酒店后的沙滩图片;右手边的图是第二天同样的沙滩. 分别真的是天和地. 细节决定胜败，马来西亚在这些细节永比不上搞旅游搞的成功的泰国。

这海滩有很多的螃蟹在沙滩上挖了很多的小洞. 它们将沙粒搬出来成为很美的图

这张图有四五个小洞, 那些被搬出的沙粒形成了有趣的图.

有些蟹比较大,它们挖的洞也比较大. 它们听到你走近就会将半个身进洞口,你靠近它就躲进洞里了. 下面的图可看到半只的蟹

除了看螃蟹, 孩子们拾贝壳 ,也玩沙.

儿子这个沙滩现代画的灵感是否来自螃蟹做的图

没陪孩子，我就在这沙滩看看书，听海，看海，看夕阳。感觉很好！虽没有天人合一，但也能暂时忘我。

xxx

待续。。。。。。。

人事1

2009-02-20T11:20:00.001+08:00

人事1 - 心态, 看法

在一间公司做事,通常会遇到部门或同事间因不同的立场,不同的看法而产生矛盾. 当领导或主管的工作就是处理这些矛盾, 让这个团队能够很有能力和活力. 不过有些喜欢搞政治的领导就比较喜欢制造下属之间的矛盾来巩固自己的权力和地位.

如果你的上司不管你和其他同事的矛盾,那就得靠自己了. 怎样和同事建立好的关系和得到他们的支持是一门艺术-说容易,做起来就不简单. 关系处理的好不好就得看自己对人,对关系的看法和心态;能不能下苦功不断的练习沟通及相关的技巧,当然我们处在的环境通常也有决定性.

我们是用什么眼光看世界,我们就会用什么方法和行动去和这个世界打交道. 我以前的同事,Mr Quek 说过一句话-大意就是 "如果你将人看成钉子,那你对他们就是锤打罢了". 同样的,如果你认为你的同事一定要和你合作,那当你得不到你所需要的你就会很生气或泄气. 不过如我们认为他们没必要照我们的要求去做,那我们就会想方法或得找出能让对方有利或高兴去做. 那我们才会想到如何产生双赢, 才会准备好要如何"卖"你的点子或方法, 才会想到换位思考.

to be continue .....

2009.2.20

三世

2009-02-02T15:03:00.001+08:00

因果，业报，习惯，习气

一个人骑在马上经过一小镇。他显的很累，但他没停下来。有好奇的人问他要去那里，他回答说不知道，因为他不知道马去那。

我们或说大部份人都像那骑士，不能百份百的控制我们的方向，而是受习惯，或说习气或说业报或说因果或说运气所驱使。除非特别幸运的人，人到中年就倍觉的人生多无奈，很多事是明知走下去的结果但还得走下去。

人到中年对佛教三世之说可能不全信但也会觉的少年之前就是青年的前世，青年是今世也是中年的前世，而中年就是青年时的后世。少年之前所准备的影响了青年所能做的事，青年时所作所为就决定了中年的日子。

但人生也不完全宿命，不是全没选择。人生总有几个重要的分叉点，在这些重要的关节点能不能选择走对的那一条路，就是在之前走的那一段里有所学习，有所领悟。

已丑年元月初七－人日

年雨

2009-02-02T14:59:00.001+08:00

2009。1。26 星期一，己丑年，正月，初一

“干冬湿年” －这是老人家传下来的，就是说如果冬至那几天没下雨，到了新年就会下雨了。往年没注意，但今年这句话是对的。雨从昨晚就开始下了。雨下的不大，点点滴滴，断断续续的一直下。年雨让这除夕寂静但我思绪如潮。。。

也许是这年雨，也许接财神的时间不是凌晨，也可能是禁了爆竹，或许是经济不景，总之今年除夕比往年静多了。静的不象过年了。但不觉的象过年也不是今年了。自妈妈去后就有这种感觉，没有回家过年的感觉。而这种从家被切割出来的感觉更为强烈是在自己在祖屋的房间被用作其他用途后。那间房，自己平常不在，只是过年过节才睡那一两晚，改作其他用途是对的。可是回来就有一种做客而不是回老家的感觉了。

家是什么？现在剩下的是孩子和老婆在的地方了！

New Year Wishes

2009-01-29T22:54:00.001+08:00

☆╭┐┌╮☆°．﹒
╭┘└┘└╮∴°☆°
└┐．．┌┘───╮∴°
╭┴──┤HAPPY ├╮
│ｏｏ│牛YEAR │●°
╰┬──╯ │ ∴°。 ☆ ˍ|ˍ/ˍˍˍˍˍ/∴☆
祝新年快乐，心想事成

Wishing you & your fmly a happy & prosperous new year"GONG XI FA CHAI".Frm Robert Ang & fmly. U & yr fmly r welcome 2 my Open Hse 2morrow 26th. fr 1.00 pm onward

新》禧又來到《年》年都美妙
《快》樂常微笑
《樂》在每一秒
《恭》賀少不了
《喜》慶樣樣好
《發》願好運罩
《財》源滾滾到。
祝你新年快樂、萬事如意 .
PKM Partners, Tee Lay Peng § family

Göng Xì Fätt Cäi... May the 0x year bring you WEALTH every Monday, PROSPERITIES every Tuesday, LUCK every Wednesday, HEALTH every Thursday, HAPPINESS every Friday, LOVES every Saturday, JOY every Sunday and last but not least PEACE everyday. göng xì göng xì....from yip n family

新春到来又一年
欢欢乐乐过新年
食物丰富吃得甜
身体健康是本钱
真诚友情不讲钱
收到信息愿心甜
幸福家庭好团圆
早早向您拜个旺旺金牛年

Gong Xi Fa Cai. Kerbau mari tikus lari. Susah hati skrang resesi, takda kerja gerenti mati, jimat cermat berhati hati ,mau pakai wang pikir 3 kali..Gong Xi Gong Xi . Loo

Hv a great Year of the Ox. Gong Xi Fa Chai from B C Teh & family.

炮竹一响除旧年,满地红红迎新年,春夏秋冬一整年,好运连连一整年,心想事成在今年,如意吉祥平安年,发财发财在今朝,祝你过个大肥年。

。88。88。88。
88。。新。。88
88。。年。。88
。88。发。88。
。。88发88。。
。。。8。。。
                                          衷心祝福，
恭贺新禧。                   祝您                               新年快乐;-)
愿您                                青春常驻 :-D                     平安健康，                    幸福快乐，
事业顺利，
心想事成！                   一切顺心，                   万事如意！:-O:-D:-*          KC CHIA n family 躬

Wishing you a HAPPY n PROSPEROUS CHINESE "NIU" YEAR. "GONG XI FA CAI" from lim hock seng & famly

快接近新年咯！在此祝你财源滚滚，发得像肥猪；身体棒棒，壮得像狗熊，爱情甜甜，美得象蜜蜂；好运连连，多得像牛毛；事业蒸蒸，越飞越高像大鹏;-）

Tikus lari,
Lembu mari,
Soi pergi,
Ong mari,
Tahun lepas
sudah pergi,
Tahun ini
Mesti happy,
Badan sihat,
Keluarga   bahagia,    bonus tinggi[sure or not - add by me]
Banyak money,
Hua Hi Hua Hi. Wishing you a HAPPY & PROSPEROUS CHINESE NEW YEAR!!! Sok leng n yeap chun

Wish you and your family a happy new year. May this year be prosperous, filled with luck, fortune, wealth and most importantly happiness.

With the Strength, loyalty & prosperity of an Ox, you'll be blessed this Chinese New Year!! The year of the Ox symbolizes Great Health too! Wishing you & family Happy Chinese New Year blessed with endless happiness & abundance wealth! Warmest regards, NariMohini

我感谢生命里所有遇到的人，每个朋友都是我生命里独一无二的财富，感谢你们。一颗感恩的心献上最诚挚的祝福，祝春节快乐，身体健康＆合家幸福
fr. Karen n family.

Gong xi gong xi best wishes for this new year may this ox bring more luck , health and wealth to you and family

Gong Xi Fat Cai & Happy Chinese New Year. From Josh & Melinda

Happy n Prosperous 2009 牛年! 万事如意,身体健康! from T.W.Ong n family.

Perhaps a bit wiser, a bit kinder too, a little bit braver, a heart more true, a touch of believing (hope) that life often brings a little more beauty :-). BLESSED CNY.. Warm wishes Christine : )

Gong Xi Fa Cai and may you and your family prosper in Health Wealth and Happiness this New Year of the Ox ... From Wilfred (Woolf) and Family.

Gong Xi Fatt Choy! May this new year brings multiple growth, great wealth & good health. God Bless! Hudson Loh & family

Warmest and special wishes for golden OX year, good health abundance wealth and happiness. Chong

May God bless you + family this oxpicious new year with joy, peace, love, health + wealth, from Ming+ family.

Linux 4

2009-01-17T16:43:00.001+08:00

Linux - thin clients/email/fax server

2002 faith or luck or kamma whatever we called it, took me back to KL from JB and worked in IPO and corporate restructuring areas for some companies doomed to die no matter what . And, faith had such a strong hold on me for the next 4 years that despite how hard I tried I could not get out of the meaningless work of audit but not auditing, Co Secretarial services with no services, writing business plan and forecast for others which I was sure these numbers would not be met and the only thing that kept me going were helping the associates to grow and tinkering with Linux. Looking back, sentences of sincere thanks from some associates that I had helped them to learn meant more than anything to me as these were the only things meaningful I did in the four years. Of course life experiences were never waste as I witness the scum bags and darkside of corporate world during these four years.

Back to Linux. I was attached as a contractor for an CA firm in corporate exercise work and sometime I was a contractor for the audit department as well as part-time trainer providing training in areas that audit associates were not familiar such as the housing development accounts and contractors accounts. When I first worked there, the audit department was an ancient set-up with more than 10 staff sharing one or two computers. However, the bosses or in the world of audit firm, Partners were thrifty if you look from positive side or stingy if you look from the staff side so to provide each staff with one PC will "kill" the partners. Some how, I managed to get budget of 6Kto buy some PC ( but memory blur again ...... How I got that budget, I really could not remember .............) . With 6 K, one could buy 2 PC with normal windows software like Ms Office

My idea was to upgrade the skills and efficiency of the audit department using things like spreadsheet and word processing. With this budget, one could not go very far. How and where I got the idea of using LTSP was not clear now. LTSP stands for Linux Terminal Services Project. What it did was to let a thin clients i.e PC without harddisk and with low memory (as low as 32M) to link to a powerful server as if running the server from the clients . In this way although the thin client may of low spec but could gave acceptable performance to the users. One server could easily serve 10 to 20 thin clients. In this way I could get an entry level server from Dell and put in 2G ram. I will put in Linux and openoffice instead of MS Window and Ms Office. This should save few K. The balance of budget will be spent on new monitors and used 2nd hand old PC as terminal so the total budgets was roughly as follows:

		RM
	Server - Dell entry level with 2G RM	1,500
	Cabling+switch (60 per point)	1,000
	Old used PC+ new screen- 8 unit	3,500
	Old used modem - for fax, donated by me	0
	Open Office	free
	Linux	free
	Sendmail server - email server	free
	fax server - Hylafax	free
	Samba server - share files with windows	free

If MS software would have been used, the cost would reach 30K

To make a long story short, the final setup allowed:

everyone in the audit department to use computer spreadsheet and word processing ( openoffice) to do their work,
fax was received by the Linux server and converted to PDF file and route as email to the office staff ; fax could be sent direct from the individual PC without learning new trick
internal email for the whole office
file sharing in common folders even with the Windows machines
no virus to worry about for the Linux server.
minimum maintenance for the thin clients

This was setup in 2002/3 and still being used by the firm currently.

2009.1.17