How is that the guys in the adult movies can last for hours before reaching orgasm? It's movie magic, stupid! But even in the live performances (go Europe), the guys seem to last forever.
This post is for the poor guys who can't last even a minute (normal is over 7 minutes). At the same time, it's also for the fathers who want to make baby girls or baby boys. What' the relationship? It's my theory to explain why there seems to be more girls than boys. I see more women than men in my office, I see more women driving on the roads in Kuala Terengganu than there are men, and certainly there are more females in schools, colleges and universities in our country.
For Fathers Day, I'll stick to absurdity and sexiness - how long you last determines if you'll get a baby girl or baby boy. No, you don't need the expensive high-tech techniques. Check to make sure I'm correct here.
The acidity or alkalinity of a woman's vagina is very important in determining baby boy or girl. An acidic environment favours girls, since it will kill the weaker male sperm first and leave a greater number of X sperm (female) to fertilise the egg. So, if you are trying for a boy, a good time for intercourse is when the vaginal balance changes to alkaline - on the day the woman ovulates, or ensure that she orgasms first before you do. Orgasms play a role in determining the sex of a child - the female orgasm. A woman’s body releases a substance that rises alkaline levels when she orgasms. Boys are produced much quicker when there are higher levels of alkaline.(so the explanation for the apparent more-female-than-male phenomena is perhaps because our women don't orgasm enough or because many men now don't last long enough for the women to orgasm).
Fathers, on this Fathers Day, if you want to make baby boys or just want to last as the guys in the movies do, check this drug, Dapoxetine, and this spray, the TEMPE Spray. Don't get over-excited yet. The drug and the spray are yet to be released. If you can't wait, these drugs are in use - Anafranil, Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil.
Craigslist In Kuala Terengganu, you can't find any classifieds in any newspaper or ads in any 7-Eleven Community Board on room or house for rent. I scouted the city and suburbs, but not a single notice on any unoccupied house if it's for rent. But, in many US cities, Craigslist is the best way to get a job, find an apartment, buy furniture or get a date. It's not flashy or slick, but you won't see any commercial ads here, and the Best Of section is not to be missed.
To me the attractiveness of this creation is that the classifieds are not edited. Another attraction, too, is the anonymity of the Internet - so now I get to shed some inhibition. Some landlords and apartment dwellers looking for roommates are offering to accept sex in lieu of rent on Craigslist. There's an ad offering a room in exchange for "sex and light office duty." Another, a one-bedroom pool house is free "to a girl that is skilled and willing." Yet another ad, a USD700-a-month room is available at a discount to a fit female willing to provide sex. I just wonder if these guys really get to collect rent under the sheets. But it gives me some absurd Father's Day idea.
I got two empty rooms in Kuala Terengganu and now that I could shed some inhibition, I'm thinking of taking a little adventure with this form of voyeurism and hope that it does result in an actual exchange of sex for rent. I'll use the local Terengganu term - homestay, instead of house for rent. Guys, when you see an ad that goes like this, let the hot chicks know: "Athletic MBA Man offering attractive Homestay package in Kuala Terengganu. RM500 per day, negotiable for attractive and willing young females. Offer expires after Fathers Day". Should I change the tag for this post to something sexy and absurd?
Google Maps I could find, with ease, my way to Kampong Biawak, Lundu, Sarawak with this Google Map on my HTC TyTN II phone. People said I could get fish, fresh from the fishermen's boat a Pulau Kambing in Kuala Terengganu. I located the place on Google Map on my phone and got my fresh fish just as they landed from the sea at the Pulau Kambing jetty. Google's Street View brought a new dimension to mapping this year, offering users real-life images from ground level.
Yelp.com At Yelp, customers write critical appraisals of everything from theaters to public restrooms. It's the "wisdom of the crowd" in action. Does anyone know if we have something similar here in Malaysia, comprehensive, reliable? If so, it means we Malaysians have moved one level up from being mere consumer of internet-based info to providers of good content.
NYTimes.com So much have been said about how this grand old newspaper reinvented itself. It has crafted a strong, user-friendly online presence spiced with engaging interactive graphics and first-rate news video. Check this out to see how brilliant the online presence has been designed to give us such an awesome online experience. Our local thestar.com.my is almost there, I think. But the poor guys in RTM, Media Prima and NSTP's www.emedia.com.my continues to remain latecomers, if they ever get to survive the next few years. http://www.nytimes.com/
Sidestep SideStep scans more than 200 other travel-focused Web sites, looking for low-priced flights, hotels, rental cars and cruises. The bottom line: It's surprisingly effective at finding deals. It's a great model. Somehow, I haven't found a low-priced deal that low-priced enough for an average Malaysian like me.
Digg Digg continues to serve denizens of the Web as the most reliable barometer of must-read news on the Internet. Another interesting idea.
Flock On Father's Day when you get sick of having to surf to all your favorite sites and services, get Flock. Flock integrates Facebook updates, Twitter feeds, YouTube videos, Flickr photo streams, Gmail and Yahoo Mail and blogging tools into a single navigation (and browsing) interface. Read a review here.
The coming Wet n Tech Camp will again be a time for adults to exercise effective skills in nurturing young people in an informal setting. We have seen too many programs targeting young people, but fail to involve them in building life-skills. Take the National Service program for example. Would it not benefit the young people if they are involved in the designing, planning, running and evaluation of the program activities? Wouldn't they at least learn about planning and leadership by being involved that way? Have you seen how the adults communicate with the participants?
Often, we adults talk down to children. It's almost a natural thing to do and our children grow up to do the same thing. We lecture and preach to children. We talk to them condescendingly or without respect, judge their actions, force our own values unto them, use punishment or anger, and make their questions seem silly.
Experiences from raising 6 children (I'm sure you have your experiences to share), combined with community sevice work involving children, here's some positive adult-children communication that may help improve how we get along with young people. It's no different from the communication skills we need in the office. But it takes us to change our own way of relating to young people:
1. Listen and ask questions. 2. Understand the problem or issue. 3. Give facts and correct information. 4. Be able to say, "I don't know". 5. Share your values. 6. Be patient. 7. Share your faith. 8. Respect their opinions. 9. Assure confidentiality and build trust. 10. Share alternatives and options. 11. Give choices. 12. Develop their decision-making skills. 13. Give guidance to live long, healthy lives. 14. Help them identify their feelings and opinions. 15. Build their confidence and self-esteem.
Facilitators of the Wet n Tech Camp, as usual, will need to exercise this communication skill. These may also be especially useful when communicating about family issues, sexuality and growing pains with young people.
Buying new phones now may not be a good idea. No, not because of the fuel price hike. Apple just launched its new 3G iPhone, priced at USD199 (previous iPhone retailed at USD399) and will be available first in 70 countries (not Malaysia, yet).
For those who can't wait for iPhone's availability in Malaysia, we have two iPhone killers worth owning, but yet to be available. 1. Nokia's Tube 2. Samsung's Instinct
With the iconic iPhone redefining the user experience in mobile phones, Nokia and Samsung have been toiling away with touch-based competitors to the iPhone. Both touted by critics as iPhone killers. (From my experience, nothing comes close to Apple's user experience). Tube is Nokia's first touch device, powered by the new Symbian operating system with built-in Java support (iPhone does not support Java, but Sun has announced will port JVM to iPhone).
Samsung Instinct has a touch screen (smaller than iPhones) featuring localized tactile feedback, called haptics, which allow the virtual QWERTY keypad and other operations to become a sensory experience. It has features like Visual Voicemail, allowing users to listen to messages in their order of preference and manage them with a simple tap of the screen. It also provides support for (POP3) email, multitasking capabilities that allow the user to play music in background mode while surfing the Internet, texting or playing games, a 2.0 megapixel camera with camcorder and expandable microSD memory of up to 8GB. It also includes a Global Positioning System chip. Does it have a feature that enables one to have more sex?
Kampong Biawak, Lundu, Sarawak is home to the Selakau people, a Dayak group. It's a border village. You can get across to Kalimantan on a day pass. Across the border is the other half of the kampong.
I spent the first day of Gawai, 1st June, visiting open houses here and enjoyed the rest of the day at open houses in Lundu, moving on to Bau district to the villages of Kpg Opar, Kpg Serasot and Kpg Stass.
Of all th kampongs, Kpg Biawak is a deep contrast to the others. Even after 50 years of independence, the people of Kpg Biawak continue to commute on dusty gravel road, an improvement from the earthen road.
It's no wonder that more and more people are demanding change. For me, that change means that the boss of Petronas must be a Sarawakian, that Sarawak decides how the revenues are spent. That change means instead of giving out oil revenue royalty, the Federal Government must now request for from Sarawak and justify for revenues for its expenditures.
Here is the new, more acceptable Six Sigma logo. "Quality is like sex. Everyone wants it, but few people get it", that's what a friend and one-time mentor (now CEO of MyBiz) once said. I have never been able to dispute that. There are just as many sex therapists as there are quality management gurus to remedy the many who fail to have sex and companies that fail in quality management. The companies I work for all fail their quality programs and for me, it's always the other guys who have all the luck with the hot chicks. Both quality and sex have many terms by which people refer to them - Six Sigma, QCC, Shag, Copulate for example. Both quality and sex have so many stuffs written about them and there are just as many 101 Ways of Enjoying Sex books, articles and websites as there are 101 Ways of Improving Quality in Your Company books. More similarities:
1. I don’t “get” either one. 2. They both have a measure phase. 3. People have used both to pay their bills. (pls check with Motorola if people have used sex to pay their Six Sigma bills). 4. Exciting at first, then disappointing. 5. Lies, myths and exaggerations are rampant. 6. They both make me sleepy.
One difference between the two - in business institutions there are quality programs such as Six Sigma program or QCC, but we don't have sex programs in our marriage institutions. Another difference - after the initial arousal and excitement, quality programs die off without ever reaching climax, but with sex and good play you can get multiple orgasm and spiritual fulfillment.
Lesson from experience - use of the term "Sex Sigma" (or similar terms) to describe a Six Sigma quality program indicates the term users have rejected the Six Sigma program. If you start hearing such terms around your company, then you can conclude your Six Sigma program is being rejected within your company.
When that happens, it is time to use a more acceptable logo (such as the one shown above) for your Sex Sigma program. With sex being the most searched topic on the Internet by Malaysians, you can't go wrong with Sex Sigma as a successful program in your company.
These people certainly know where the best Gawai is - always in Singai. The Super Bikers, the former diplomat (diplomats are the biggest party people I know), the UNDP folks, all the children and even the poor boy who got sick through out the holidays.
Think of Terengganu, you think of beaches and turtles. When I think of beaches, I think of all things associated with it - sunshine, sea, sand and bikini-clad unidentified female objects. And really, that's what I came to Terengganu for - hot, sexy bikini-clads.
So far, I've never found any. But here's the closest I could get to my fantasy - girls trying to fly kites on the beach. I learnt that if you do not know how to fly kites, try wearing the kites instead. You could make the kites look good.
Another lesson - forget the bikini-clads. Instead, hang around the hotel's jacuzzi coz' you could get lucky shots for your blog.
As for the turtles, they're nowhere to be found, perhaps because they too don't see any bikini-clads on the beaches. Don't you see why the SUKOM 2008 mascot, Si Diman, is a fish? No matter how educated or how religious we are, we continue our despicable inhumane acts of destroying our environment and cause the extinction of God's wonderful creations like the leatherback turtles. Some redemption can be here and you'll find more serious fun, bare naked with nature here.
These are my angels. One of them is a Japanese. He's the only one who loves durian and I thought that's amazing. Even more amazing - as warriors, they're not wearing their keris.
The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) mission is: To provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves. The target group: The nearly two–billion children in the developing world who are inadequately educated, or receive no education at all. The means to the end: A project to build and distribute a small, simple, robust and sub USD100 laptop that would revolutionise life for the poor by educating their children - or, in the most idealistic version, allowing them to educate themselves by playing with the software.
I'm reminded of OLPC upon visiting the Intel booth and surprised that it is apparently still alive. Even more surprised that our Ministry of Education is running the pilot in 10 schools. We had the Smart Schools MSC Flagship Application that drained hundreds of millions of taxpayers money without any results to show. Then came the Education Blueprint. Now this.
OLPC was launched in Jan-2005 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland by founder, Nicholas Negroponte of MIT Media Lab. It was endorsed by Kofi Annan, Rupert Murdoch, Presidents of Brazil, Nigeria and 20 or more countries that announced their intention to buy. Several hundred thousand of the laptops have actually been delivered, mostly in Peru. Reportedly, no one knows exactly where.
Critics say it was an expensive gimmick. In places like my kampong that can hardly afford pens and pencils for their schools, it is not obvious that a USD100 laptop for every child is the answer to mass illiteracy. Read the blog of a OLPC senior executive who quit this year, Ivan Krsti, after he was sent out to Peru to oversee the distribution of the some 40,000 laptops in about 570 schools there. He describes "across jungles, mountains, plains, and with total variance in electrical availability and uniformly no existing network infrastructure. A number of the target schools are in places requiring multiple modes of transportation to reach, and that are so remote that they're not even serviced by the postal service. Laptop delivery was going to be performed by untrusted vendors who are in a position to steal the machines en masse. There is no easy way to collect manifests of what actually got delivered, where, and to whom."
Even if the laptops reach the schools they are supposed to reach, there is no evidence at all that they will actually help children to learn. Lets learn to learn. Lets learn lessons from our not-so-successful Smart Schools project that emphasized computers. It takes a leap of faith to believe that children learn better through computers than books.
The last I report I read the OLPC is going down. The collapse of the scheme higlights the falsity of the believe that IT alone can lift people out of poverty. Knowledge may, but the technology that spreads knowledge best is literacy, not laptops. Supporters say that the laptop enables people to have access to more information via the Internet allowing them to tap into a vast reserve of knowledge - e.g. Wikipedia. But how much information does a person need to consume to have sustainable livelihood? Though the Internet gives you access to information, but so does a good textbook.
How is a laptop more efficent than a book? Textbooks require no power, don't need winding up or solar cells, they can be passed to the next kid when it is finished with. They only use sustainable trees in their construction, and are cheap.
And what can a unsustainable laptop teach that a book cannot? Only IT skills, and I'd imagine that an agriculture community like my kampong, Singai, in Sarawak, does not have IT top of the survival skillset.
I'm 40 something and the Internet wasn't there to impact on my secondary education. I'm sure none of my forty something colleagues would regard our education as woefully deficient.
Not that I want to generalise, but back in my kampong school in remote Sarawak, we studied English lit with 10 copies of the novel to be split between about 60 kids. In that situation, at least, a laptop for every child would have been laughably irrelevant.
In the age of the Internet today, how is that a McKinsey study finds that only 11% of our graduates are employable by multinational companies?
An even deeper lesson: Just watch our own children - without adult support and encouragement, children will use all technology to play with. If you give them paper, they will make paper aeroplanes; if you give them laptops, they will play solitaire. So really what our beloved Malaysia needs is better educated teachers.
MOE, please learn one more lesson: In the Smart Schools project, the people in charge don't bother to find out what the end-user really needs and can cope with. The project ends up enriching some private companies, wasting lots of taxpayer money, and doing no good, and no-one takes the blame. In the end the verdict is that "lessons will be learnt" but in fact they never are because the same mistakes are repeated over and over.
At the Intel booth it was revealed that its soon to be released new generation of the OLPC, the NetBook, will be powered by the new generation Intel Atom processor.
Intel joined OLPC in July last year and introduced its version of the laptop.
Watch a video of Intel's Classmate PCs in Dr Craig Barrett's Keynote Address at WCIT 2008. His presentation defines what is a world-class presentation.
At expos, I observe that booths of exhibitors from foreign countries are usually less patronized. Be it IT expo, halal showcase, MAHA or any other exhibition, the response is the same, no matter how well-designed the booths are.
I can offer free professional advice to these exhibitors, but my advice is nothing new and in fact successful exhibitors use this tactic all the time to attract - attractive young girls in skimpy, sexy or skin-tight clothing.
Instead of giving hand outs, goodie bags or cheap gifts (some offer sweets and candies), nothing beats offering sexual favours. Imagine the kind of response a booth offering 40,000 sexual favours would get.
Hey, even Malaysia Debt Ventures Berhad (MDV) exploit those sweet young girls to entertain people at MDV booth, asking for business cards and ofering gifts in return. MDV's CEO sat behind watching over the girls. If he was wearing other than a black suit, he would almost look like a pimp watching over the brood. In the scheme of things, how about repaying our loans with sexual favours? If you check out the blog of MDV's CEO at http://www.debtventures.com/cms/index.jsp, the possibilty is there.
I'm yet to imagine the number of visitors to my blog if I offer 40,000 sexual favours on this blog.
I'm not sure. Are you? The incredible ease at which I submitted by income tax returns last month left me feeling truly empowered. Like having sex, the feeling subsided after logging out off the e-Filing website. Reality struck back - the BN gov't will continue to ensure that our tax money is not well-spent and will enrich the few. The soaring cost of food and fuel, the many tolled roads, the increase in crimes, the unstoppable waste of taxpayers money, the ever churning datukship industry - I'll never feel empowered. Perhaps that's how it feels to be impotent, too.
Who will ever be held accountable and prosecuted for the over RM50 mil waste of public money on the failed e-Village project in Dengkil? Will taxpayers be able to get back the RM500 mil burnt in InventQjaya in Cyberjaya? Can MDeC answer what happened to taxpayers money in its investment arm, Meitech Development Sdn Bhd and the investments and subsidiaries such as Optica Fiber Technologies MSC Sdn Bhd, Knowledge Worker Exchange Sdn Bhd, e-commerce application service provider (ASP) GO2020.com MSC Sdn Bhd? Perhaps Datuk Arif Nun and Dr Muhammad Ghazie Ismail can explain.
Don't be mistaken when MDEC proudly proclaims that it is the pinnacle partner of WCIT. MDEC equals Taxpayers. And MDEC management must always remind themselves this when they treat themselves lavishly.
This article in The Star today caught me like the momentarily-blinding sunlight. I'm reminded that Sweden has minimal wife-beating incidences. Really, because there is almost no wife to beat. We know that Swedish people are often referred to as the freest society (unburdened of morals, also in terms of Index of Economic Freedom) and most advanced (refer to human development index, also the 2nd most ICT connected society).
More than half of Swedish men and women live without marriage, any Swede with any other for any length of time (this is the part I like). The people have coined a name for this arrangement: sambo (sam means together; bo means live). The family is no more legitimate. In fact, the family is looked down as un-modern, antiquated. Sweden is often cited by liberals as an example for freedom, gender rights, and human rights. However, Sweden has high incidences of women-beating, i.e men, whom are not husbands, beat women, whom are not wives. How free is free?
In Sweden, as an institution, the family is dead. The gov't has to step in to fill the gap - care for the infirm, the aged, and the unemployed. In substance, the Swedish are consequently, the least free - they are most state-dependent, in fact. Result, the Government bears the costs of helpers to look after the uncared for aged Swedish. Even medical care brought to them if they are unable to get around easily.
A nation like ours, need moral police such as Munirah Bahari, vice-president of National Islamic Students Association of Malaysia. Never mind Munirah's concern that “The white blouse is too transparent for girls and it becomes a source of attraction. ... This is the source of the problem, where we can see that schoolgirls themselves are capable of using this to attract men to them. ... This could see them getting molested, having premarital sex and all sorts of things . . .” (as quoted from the article). (by the way, I grew up in a community where women go about topless. Yet, till today, the community has zero molest, rape or incest case. In fact, respect & protection of women is a community norm. It came as a surprise to me that the east coast states of Peninsular M'sia has high rates of these 'silent' crimes compared to other states). It is the broader longer term effect of unpoliced moral in our Malaysian society that should be of more serious concern to us.
If not for saviours who are holier than us, like Munirah, the final phase of modernity is already on us - the non-procreative man-women union. If you are a regular at Fitness First gym, you'll also think that the continuing phase of modernity is the non-procreative man-man union. Consequently, population regresses threatening the existence of our nation, our cultures, and economic prospects.
Societies and families unshielded by the normative moral standards respected by our society, and not policed by the moral police such as the likes of Munirah, cannot survive. The society and family that function on normative moral standards, unburdens the gov't, releases people from the master-client relationship of Barisan Nasional and voters, and frees the citizens from state dominance. That is why we have a family provided social security and Western countries have a gov't-dependent social security.
We can now count on Munirah to set up a moral police department in the PM's Office. It is strategic for the enduring prosperity of our nation.
Is the momentarily-blinding sunlight coming through open windows better than the claustrophobic blackness of a secure and perpetually closed room?
I loved this booth. It's like they brought Mount Kinabalu to KLCC. Or was WCIT 2008 held on top of Mount Kinabalu? The setting of discussion tables with the backdrop of Mount Kinabalu provided that pleasant & therapeutic effect after fighting thru the KL traffic to get to WCIT 2008.
Here's my 3rd and final two cents worth in conjunction with WCIT 2008.
We’re already witnessing a few smart companies using the Internet and related technologies in radical ways to harvest talents of innovators working outside corporate boundaries. Some of these companies routinely involve customers, independent contractors in the creation of new products. Loncin, a motorcycle manufacturer in China lets its suppliers work with one another to design components, making sure everything fits together, and reduce costs. The Linux operating system was developed over the Internet by a network of specialists. When this approach to innovation becomes widely practiced, the impact on labour activity and skills of our workforce could be significant.
The online encyclopedia Wikipedia, is a product or service created by its distributed customers. OhmyNews, a popular South Korean online newspaper is written by over 6,000 citizen reporters. Threadless, an online clothing store engages hundreds of customers each week by getting them to submit new designs for T-shirts. The community at large votes for its favorites.
As more and more sophisticated work takes place interactively online and new collaboration and communications tools emerge, companies can outsource increasingly specialized aspects of their work.
Top talent for a range of activities—from finance to marketing and IT to operations—can be found anywhere. The best person for a task may be a free agent in India or an employee of a small company in Italy rather than someone who works for a global business services provider.
The implications of shifting more work to freelancers are interesting. For one thing, new talent-deployment models could emerge. TopCoder, a company that has created a network of software developers, may represent one such model. TopCoder gives organizations that want to have software developed for them access to its talent pool. Customers explain the kind of software they want and offer prizes to the developers who do the best job creating it—an approach that costs less than employing experienced engineers. Changes in the nature of labor relationships could shift payment schemes from time and materials to compensation for results. The other interesting thing, in conjunction with this new model, our workforce must have the required skills to be able to engage in this new model. Talents entering this workforce will require even stronger skills in team collaboration, information processing and problem solving.
I would not be wrong to say that this trend would gather steam in sectors such as software, health care delivery, professional services, and real estate, where companies can easily segment work into discrete tasks for independent contractors and then reaggregate it. As companies move in this direction, they will need to understand the value of their human capital more fully, seek new skills in the talents they need and manage different classes of contributors accordingly.
Again, all these trends in the way companies harvest talent and manage human capital will have a significant impact on future workforce. Are we preparing them for this new trend? Will our education system evolve fast enough to meet the future workforce? Are we doing anything as individuals, as parents and as responsible citizens to prepare our children who will enter the workforce?
Further reading: Thomas W. Malone, The Future of Work: How the New Order of Business Will Shape Your Organization, Your Management Style, and Your Life, Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2004.
Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community, and Everyday Life, New York: Basic Books, 2004.
Daniel H. Pink, Free Agent Nation: How America’s New Independent Workers Are Transforming the Way We Live, New York: Warner Books, 2001.
Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom, Cambridge, MA: Yale University Press, 2006.
C. K. Prahalad and Venkat Ramaswamy, The Future of Competition: Co-Creating Unique Value with Customers, Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2004.
Here's my second two-cents worth in conjunction with the World Congress on IT 2008 (WCIT 2008)in KL, May 19 - 21. Sellaband.com is revolutionizing the way artistes or music and singing talents become popular stars. Sellaband.com provides a platform to match aspiring singers with fans who are willing to bet on potential.
An aspiring artist puts his demo songs on the sellaband.com website and offer 5,000 "parts" for sale. Fans and artist and repertoire (A & R) wannabes shop on the site for songs they like. When they find something worthy, they invest in the artist by purchasing one or more parts, at USD10 each. Upon raising USD50,000, the artist is assigned an experienced A & R person and producer, and goes to the studio to record an album. Believers (the investors) get a limited edition of the CD.
Three songs are given FOC on sellaband.com website. The rest are downloadable at USD0.50. Believers, sellaband.com and the artist get portions of net profits from the downloads and from the advertising revenue.
The artist can also order his own CD at cost and sell it - Believers share USD2 per CD. Believers can also set up shop on sellaband.com, selling related products from their artistes. So, MCMC, who needs all those dumb copycat reality shows on local TV? Wake up, MCMC, the revolution has left you far behind.
MCMC, your website, www.skmm.gov.my, has not changed a bit after 10 years. That means you're 100 years behind the revolution. Your MyICMS 886 strategy, in its 14MB 2nd edition, clogs our creative networks. Your Networked Content Development Grant can be better used to open up our education system that continues to suppress creative innovation. Look, even RTM uses YouTube when it should be at the forefront of innovation in both delivery and content after being in existence for many decades. The minds in RTM are as old as those in MCMC, backward, stale, non-progressive.
Finally, the gov't delivers on it's promise. Now we're hearing the cheers from the farmers.
It would be interesting to see if the incentives really get to the real farmers in need. This is fertile ground for BN politicians to enrich themselves while influencing who gets the benefits. These incentives will go a long way in alleviating the food crisis and in helping farmers sustain their business in the wake of soaring production costs. So, politicians, think of what hungry people are capable of doing.
Kadar Insentif Tanaman Sayur-sayuran - RM81/mt Buah-buahan - RM78/mt
As the World Congress on IT 2008 in KL is only a few days away, here's a glimpse of how we fare among countries in the the world in terms of ICT.
Connectivity has been recognized as having a positive impact on transparency, good governance,and democracy. There are also implications of increased connectivity that are currently in the process of being defined, particularly in areas such as urban systems, lifestyles, and quality of life. For example, according to a 2006 technology needs assessment and economic development impact study, high bandwidth connectivity has the ability to enhance a city’s appeal to the “creative class” of knowledge workers. Across the world, increased connectivity has also become a prominent factor in the discourse on strengthening and maintaining social cohesion. Narrowing the digital gap between urban and rural areas has been a priority for our public sector, at least that's what our BN politicians say. The ranking benchmarks how far our gov't has gone to do so. This agenda has also served to placate fears that the rapid advances in technology would benefit urban areas at the expense of those geographic segments that are already struggling with their distance from markets.
Now, take a moment to reflect on the implications of the benchmark on our country's future competitiveness against our nearest neighbours. Then, lets think further about how we, as responsible individual, NGO and corporate citizen can respond.
Innovators: Sanjit Biwas (r.) and John Bicket have created inexpensive wireless technology that allows Internet signals to carry into remote areas.
Over the past two years Meraki has powered several thousand wireless networks across 70 countries and opened up the Internet to people who otherwise could never afford it.
The mission of the company is to bring affordable Internet access to the next billion people. Read more about how these two 25-year old PhD students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and founders of Meraki, a Silicon Valley start-up that has powered thousands of simple, inexpensive wireless networks around the world, http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1212/p13s01-stct.html?page=1
Now we can tell Telekom Malaysia to close down its miserable service and mediocre effort to try to connect the rural areas.
The world hunger crisis is all over the news this week. In just three years, the price of staple foods like wheat, corn and rice has almost doubled. If we don't do something soon, hundreds of thousands of people face starvation and a hundred million more could fall into extreme poverty.
I just took action with the ONE Campaign and you can too, here:
Here's a pretty innovative youth programming that uses technology for developing life skills.
TheOneMinutesJr Network. www.theoneminutesjr.org. They are sixty-second videos made by young people (between the ages of 12 and 20) from all over the world. Time may be limited in a oneminutesjr video (this challenges the youngsters to form their ideas clearly), but not the freedom to express oneself creatively, which is the basic right of every person.
TheOneMinutesJr network is a non-commercial community without any set political belief or ideology. The network gives young people, especially those who are underprivileged or marginalised, the opportunity to have their voices heard by a broad audience, to share with the world their ideas, dreams, fascinations, anxieties,and viewpoints.
It consists of the interactive oneminutesjr website, a yearly festival competition, workshops across the world, video broadcasting on ten European public TV channels, and screenings at festivals and events. And this is only for now... As they involve more partners and explore new ways of getting the oneminutesjr videos out there, the network will continue to expand.
Also check out these similar projects: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blast/. A BBC initiative offering opportunities for young people to develop their own ideas, find contacts, explore their interest in art, dance, music or film and showcase their own work.
http://www.netdays.at/ netd@ys promotes the use of new technologies, especially the internet, in education and culture.
http://mediarights.org/launchpad/ The one-stop shop for the next generation of mediamakers" launchpad highlights stories by and for young people. it features tools, resources and media, exploring what it takes to launch, promote and distribute their work. from New York to Bangalore, join these emerging voices and become part of the growing community.
Kuala Terengganu is the Heritage Waterfront City. Or is it the Sewage Waterfront City. This is a picture of the self-proclaimed World Class Equestrian Resort - the Terengganu Equestrian Resort or TER, www.ter.com.my. There are at least 5 sewage drains feeding the resort's lake. The main ones feed untreated waste water from shops and houses across the road.
We may recall a Hollywood shoot that was supposed to happen on the waters of the Hong Kong harbour. It was called off because the harbour sea water has dangerous levels of contaminants. The TER lake is where people fish and do recreational activities. Take a walk along the lake and you'll be breathing pungent air from the lake. So here's the deal that city-status citizens get.
LCCT is where everyone gets to fly. Now, even boobs want to fly...each time she retrieves items from her luggage on the floor. These landed on an island beach off Kuala Terengganu. (This is the censored copy).
Lim Kit Siang has to spoil it all. He MUST be now immediately arrested and detained under the Internal Security Act. The way that he's handling the new found power, it's really getting too dangerous for the country. He's no different from the mafia or triad gangsters.
Great power must come with even greater responsibility. Lim Kit Siang is obviously irresponsible. Power and greed will kill DAP, PAS and PKR before they even know what's coming to hit them.
Following Barisan Nasional's resounding victories in Sarawak and Sabah, and its poor performance in Peninsula Malaysia, Abdullah Badawi must step down and give way to a new Prime Minister from Sarawak. May I also suggest that the federal capital be moved to Kuching? East Malaysia must now get a major portion of the development projects. Sarawak deserves to be rewarded for saving the Barisan Nasional from total annihilation by the Barisan Rakyat.
In Malaysian democracy, that script is still unwritten.
Thanks to all the voters who have brought about the long overdue changes.
When I saw his name as a 2008 General Election candidate for parliamentary seat, I thought I was halucinating. I had to close and put back the newspaper, recollect my thoughts before I turned back the page to confirm. I spent the last 6 hours of the eve of polling day accompanying him on his campaign trail Bau to Lundu. I couldn't believe that people actually waited for him even till 11pm to give his ceramah and to answer some grassroot issues. If he wins, it would be a classic David vs Goliath story. And it would be the stunt of the century.
This is the man tasked to bring down 2 giants in Mas Gading Constituency, Sarawak. A simple man, one of the humblest human beings alive today. An accountancy graduate turned entrepreneur.
It is a very, very tough fight, seems almost impossible. The odds against him are too many.
But I've flown all the way from Kuala Terengganu to be with him through the last 6 hours of campaigning. I'm for him because he's sacrificing for national service for the greater good of the Bidayuh in Bau and for my beloved nation. If we continue with the status quo, we'll only continue to rot in the filth of corruption, abuse of power and the self-enrichment of our supposed representatives.
If size does matter, then here's the new definition of democracy. Where mainstream media has been insulting our intelligence with their Opposition bashing frenzy, this size certainly catches more eyeballs. March 8, 2008, my vote will shape the actual size.
The majesty of democracy humbles even the Barisan Nasional. High flying flags uplift the spirit to rise to the call of duty and to exercise our right to choose wisely, for our country, for our family and for the future. My vote will make a difference for the greater good.
On a trip with some colleagues from Kuala Terengganu to KL, I was asked, "Why are you not one of those living in posh Damansara Heights?". Here's why.
This 17 yr old, Ashley Qualls, is the CEO of whateverlife.com, a website she started when she was just 14 — with USD8 borrowed from her mother. Now, just three years later, the website grosses more than $1 million a year.
Her savvy cultivation of her peer group as a target market, Whateverlife began pulling in more teenage girls than a Justin Timberlake concert - about a million a day. With a big audience, the site attracted advertisers.
It all started just as the online social networking craze began. When she saw her friends personalizing their MySpace pages, she began creating and giving away MySpace background designs through Whateverlife. The designs are cheery, colorful and whimsical, with lots of hearts, her favorites.
No degrees, no MBAs, no PhDs required to make it this good. The guys living in posh Damansara Heights have college degrees? The ones I know, they don't even have secondary education or they were Grade C students.
Grade A students will always end up working for Grade C students. That's my convenient answer, but not as convenient as "Itu takdir".
If it does exist, what's the explanation for the result of the studies that say 70% of women do not orgasm during sexual intercourse? Does this also imply that 70% of men get fooled? In the movie, When Harry Met Sally, you'd understand how so easy it is for men to get fooled. If based on Durex's annual study of men's sexuality, Malaysian men deserve to be fooled. Durex says they are selfish lovers.
Harry Burns: Had my dream again where I'm making love, and the Olympic judges are watching. I'd nailed the compulsories, so this is it, the finals. I got a 9.8 from the Canadians, a perfect 10 from the Americans, and my mother, disguised as an East German judge, gave me a 5.6. Must have been the dismount.
My legendary daughter, http://nicki-ez.livejournal.com/, presented me an iPod upon her return from Japan. The iPod has an urban legend attached to it. As we know, the best urban legends are dramatic, unbelievable and told with such frequency that recipients assume they have to be true. There are the historic "URGENT AND CONFIDENTIAL" lucrative business proposals from deposed Nigerian leaders,the envied Khairy Jamaluddin, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khairy_Jamaluddin , said to amass RM62 billion worth of government projects, the existence of Big Foot in the jungles of Johore that even attracted foreign scientists, even the myriad of tea brands all claiming to boost the male power and the all convincing existence of G-spot that bring hope to unfulfilled women.
I'm yet to believe claims that mobile phones emit some form of harmful radiation. But here's one that I believed: Last year I received an RSS feed titled, "iPods Attract Lightning", describing cases of men wearing iPods being struck by lightning. Their injuries - ruptured eardrums, hearing loss and burns - matched the pathway of the headphone cord. The news was carried by many online media. Much later, read that the doctors did not say that the iPod acted as a lightning rod, though. But as we know it, eardrum perforation is the norm in lightning-related injury, and I believe is not a sign of any special effect due to an iPod.
Now, that mother-of-all urban legends of the century: The Y2K Bug Will Destroy Life As We Know It. The media frenzy leading up to 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2000, was more intense than the public interest in a combined Paris Hilton DWI, Britney Spears meltdown and all the news stunts. What was supposed to have been the end of the computer-networked civilization (which would surely have led to an all-out assault on IT departments everywhere - "Why, oh why couldn't you just have used FOUR digits in the year field?!") turned into one of the biggest non-events in history. Did we really buy into all of that hype? Yup, and I did.
Lately, a close friend told me of rumours circulating about me - that I'm separated and my family is broken. Amazing how urban legends are built up. And how much truths, half-truths and outright untruths get published in print media. You think only facts get published in print media? How about the horoscopes? With the current Opposition bashing frenzy by the media leading up to the next General Election, everything is only just believable.
This year of the Rat, the only reason I would upgrade to Windows Vista is because my new PC would be pre-install with the pig. While Vista has cool looks, it does not have the substance and essence of Megan (pic). With virtualization, I can choose to run virtual instances of XP well past the "official" XP availability date. I'll strip off Vista, install a hypervisor, drop an XP instance on top, and go on my merry way. Anything on my lap top would be a Megan or something even more desirable. Why would any one log in and out to anything of less orgasmic nature?
This is the reason, I believe, that Microsoft's head of Windows marketing, Michael Sievert, has "left the company," corporate-speak for "been dumped." At least they didn't add the killer clause, "to pursue other interests," which is corporate-speak for "dumped with enthusiasm." Without rehashing the myriad criticisms of Vista, Microsoft's main problem is that there is a perfectly acceptable alternative already in use with most potential customers: XP. And Vista does not provide sufficient improvement to justify the license cost and work required to migrate. Michael Sievert didn't shout loud enough to get people to buy Vista?
Pretty good lessons here to learn about product decision and marketing. Does marketing need to tweak the message or shout louder? Or is it a case of, "It's The Product, Stupid!".
Here's something cool to talk about - How so easy it is to make a difference.
Yes, as easy as sending an instant message. Every time you start a conversation using i’m, a portion of advertising revenue is shared with some of the world's most effective social cause organizations. Each of the partners will get a minimum of $100,000. As for the maximum? The sky's the limit. Go to http://im.live.com/Messenger/IM/Home/.
In 20 months, the Global Fund has collected USD50 mil. A portion of the profits from the sale of 11.6 mil (PRODUCT) RED goes to the fund.
Product (RED), the brain child of Bono and Bobby Shriver, manifests innovative approach to social cause and the immense viral marketing power of new media when used creatively to further social causes.
The innovation - like their business model, the marketing strategy of PRODUCT (RED) is seamlessly executed. The firms behind the (RED) brand, Wolff Olins and Buzztone, have managed to roll social networking, shopping, philanthropy and celebrities all into a brilliant cross-media campaign. Described by analysts, the key to PRODUCT (RED) is that it’s not just a cause, it’s a brand. Combining style with an altruistic message gives immediate status to a product especially when it’s endorsed by stars.
Using new media, PRODUCT (RED) has done so well virally, does a great job of keeping a consistent brand throughout all media channels and have generated widespread visibility from a massive international cross-marketing push. The viral success is already showing on the (RED) blog and (RED) Myspace page.
Most inspiring is to see traditionally bureaucratic institution, the UN, experimenting with new media and succeeding at exploiting the vast potential.
In promoting Stand Up 2006, the UN successfully used the viral video, YouTube. Celebrities ranging from Dave Matthews to Shakira to LonelyGirl15 are featured in 1 – 2 minute video segments that have been uploaded into Google Video and YouTube. The reaction from YouTubers was tremendous. Here are a few of the thousands of user-created videos that have been uploaded in response to Renetto’s Stand Up video.
In addition to the viral videos, the UN also promoted Stand Up in Second Life. The Millenium Campaign hosted Stand Up events at virtual kiosks and in 2nd Life’s “Midnight Plaza”. For the less avatar-savvy, the Stand Up website has a list of events that simultaneously took place in real life.
The response (RED) has gotten on Myspace is certainly impressive. Their network is currently increasing at a pace of about 16,000 new friends per hour. Teenagers and young adults have submitted comments to show their support, many of them sharing personal stories about their (RED) products or celebrity sightings.
If nothing else, (RED) on Myspace and Stand Up on YouTube show just how receptive Gen-Yers are to cause marketing, and the potential of social media for non-profit organizations and similar impactful coverage for other health, literacy, poverty and environmental issues.
If there is any place in Malaysia that can be our eco-city, it would be Putrajaya. Putrajaya is a place where people live near their workplaces while good clean public transport makes every area accessible. Designing and putting up buildings for mixed use, combining work and residential areas will minimise commuting. Putrajaya's network of cycle and footpaths will help the city achieve close to zero vehicle emissions. A buffer zone of managed wetland between the city and the natural wetland helps maintain a balanced ecosystem. All these already make it easier to create a community with low energy consumption that is carbon free. Putrajaya Corporation needs to do more:
While the city's buses are powered by natural gas, clean technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells must be used power public transport.
Buildings must be designed to help reduce energy use, making efficient use of energy sources and generating energy from renewable sources. It is easy to have buildings with photovoltaic solar panel cells. Wind turbines, too are practical ways of harnessing energy and the technology to do so is already available and used elsewhere.
There must be processes to capture and purify rain and all buildings should be fully insulated to minimise the waste of energy.
Organic waste such as recycled city waste, palm oil biomass, rice husks and vegetable peels must be recycled to generate electricity. Organizations like Boustead Plantation and LaFarge Cement have developed and are using technologies that efficiently recycle waste for energy.
Some of these stuffs I learnt from Chilean, Alejandro Gutierrez, an architect and urban designer for engineering and design giant Arup.
When in Prague, you'll definitely be one of the many hanging out in front of the astronomical clock, Old Town Square, waiting for it to chime. The clock was built in 1410, and refined in 1490. No clock has ever been built that rivals this one.
Every hour, when the circles in the circles line up on the face of the clock, a little skeleton appears, ringing a bell, then a succession of apostles parade by a couple of little open windows. The skeleton keeps ringing his bell and you, among the people below take pictures while considering your mortality. Well, at least I thought I considered mine.
Upon considering your mortality, stop by the nearby 3-storey Sex Machines Museum, on Melantichova 18. Officially described as "an exposition of mechanical erotic appliances, the purpose of which is to bring pleasure and allow extraordinary and unusual positions during intercourse."
You'll wonder the practices of those who invented the objects on the top floor, which include whips and chains and masks and outfits that can get your skin crawling. There are all kinds of seriously perplexing stuffs. The furnitures are definitely incomprehensible. You'll certainly spend some time trying to figure out how they are supposed to be used.
When you've seen it all, you'll likely realize that the "pleasure" element is largely subservient to the "extraordinary and unusual" element and that it takes a lot of guts and reminders for some people to have sexual intercourse. Sex is apparently not a very pleasurable activity for some.
Having been named as the 2006 Person of the Year by Time Magazine, I have to live up to it. Living it up required me to begin a Second Life (http://www.secondlife.com/), check-in as a Wikipedian, join the millions on myspace.com and take on a persona that exudes a version of myself that I have so desired to impress upon others. And in Second Life, I really wanted to have lots of sex. Second Life is where I can look however I want, do whatever I want, use the fake name I want and I could make all my fantasies come true, including multi-partnered, marathon sex. For a while I found Second Life therapeutic as I could explore my darkest desires, discover a fetish that I don’t have and only to find out later that to have a penis, I had to pay for it. As I could not afford to buy a penis yet, I thought that I could either look for another Lifer who would give it to me for free, or I could work to amass some wealth before I could upgrade my fantasy life.
Yes, gathering wealth in a virtual world! I learnt that Second Life is a thriving business and the brilliant part is that you pay for fake items like cars, real estate, clothing, etc with real money. Some people make thousands of U.S. dollars selling designs for cars or flipping virtual property.
A Chinese woman, Ailin Graef announced that she had amassed virtual real-estate holdings worth over $1 million. Her 3D avatar, Anshe Chung, made the cover of Business Week. Even big-name corporations are using Second Life's virtual world for marketing purposes. Adidas and Reebok are selling virtual shoes while Pontiac and Toyota are selling virtual cars.
In Second Life, the possibilities are almost endless. You can open a retail store or start a house-building business, run a casino or become a landscaper. Just as land is important in the real world, in Second Life, buying land gives you an anchor in this virtual world. Once you purchase land, you can sell it at a profit. You can build a house, furnish it, stock the refrigerator, and invite friends for a cookout. In fact, you can build and sell all sorts of other goods and services.
The endless possibilities could even extend to Rotary. Take the case of the organization Save the Children which uses Second Life to raise real dollars. At the Save the Children "Yak Shack," you're contributing real money toward real yaks for very real children in Tibet each time you purchase a "virtual yak". Laugh if you like. But at the end of the day, those Tibetan children get milk, wool, and much-needed help in plowing fields.
The warm flush of superiority at the thought of possibly putting the Adidas guys out of business, quickly changed to a feeling of complete devastation when I could not open a premium account in Second Life because I had exceeded my Mastercard spending limit. A premium account would have given me access to real estate, greater wealth and perhaps, philanthropy with a few of those virtual yaks for charity.
With no capital to start with in Second Life, I decided to abandon my ultimate fantasy and quest for wealth. Instead, do a little charity – contribute to Wikipedia. So began my life as a Wikipedian.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX8sW8xZ0rk Too many IT professionals dismiss the unproven in the name of defending enterprise integrity. Would an IT manager welcome Facebook in the workplace?
Consider a company that has encouraged employees to spend one hour each Friday on their Facebook profiles, connecting with co-workers, customers, family and friends. And sometime later, the company is actually going much further than that, replacing its corporate intranet with Facebook as a front end linked to a low-cost content management system behind the firewall. Then consider the fact that Facebook provides an engaging experience, it’s free, it’s easy to write custom apps on top of it, and you can set up both private and public groups.
Kiva has re-invented lending in the 21st century. Anyone with at least USD25 can log on to the site, browse the profiles of entrepreneurs in third-world countries and choose which cause to support.
Then there's MicroPlace. From MicroPlace's press release,
Through MicroPlace’s secure platform, everyday people can purchase investments – for as little as $100 – from microfinance security issuers. MicroPlace also enables investors to direct the impact of their investment to a specific country and microfinance institution in the developing world. The microfinance institutions use the funds to make small loans to the working poor, who in turn use the loans to start or expand small businesses and lift themselves out of poverty.
MicroPlace offers a portal where profit-conscious investors can get involved in microfinance without totally compromising on rate of return.
When Bank Negara heard that an NGO was starting a microfinance project in the country, they immediately dispatched their officers to meet the NGO chief. The BNM officers mentioned about the need to have a license.
Kiva and MicroPlace has shown the way for NGOs to operate effectively, affecting the lives of many needy people without the bureaucracy and strong arm of a central bank.
Launching a new Rotary club…is like…launching a great ship….The sea is said to be a teacher of truth and in sailing we find the salt of reality. Rotarians and likeminded men of goodwill can come to recognize that we are one people around the earth, and that we can do much to bring harmony and understanding between brothers who may dwell across expansive oceans…or perhaps next door.
Should young people be subject to restrictions imposed for their safety by adults, or should they be free to make their own choices, and - inevitably perhaps - suffer as a result?
There are vast differences in the ability of children after puberty to guide their new, more powerful selves through the next few turbulent years. For this reason, the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child requires that young people be entitled to additional, protective rights until the age of 18. The idea of remaining officially a child for almost two decades is a catch-all solution, designed to reduce risks for the most vulnerable. Yet it hardly describes the experiences of many young people.
Indeed, we might choose to see contribution and independence as key indicators of de facto adulthood: the degree to which these describe a child's life indicate the extent to which he or she has assumed an adult role, even if it is not always recognised as such. This leads to a number of conundrums. In the West, the principles of rationality and individualism dictate that offspring are brought up to be independent in thought and deed. Yet, largely thanks to lengthy education, Western children are kept utterly dependent upon their parents long after many of their counterparts in the South. There, the situation can be reversed: older family members may well be dependent upon the child for income or labour; yet children often grow up in patriarchal societies, which attach little importance to their views. In parts of Africa, meanwhile, a grown man may not be acknowledged as fully adult if he cannot provide for others. One might be a 'child' at the age of 40!
Given this huge variety of abilities and experiences, it is almost impossible to reconcile young people's autonomy and protection without reference to the individual concerned. And, notwithstanding the UN's definition of childhood, there are many under-18s whose ability to contribute and take responsibility we should, perhaps, be celebrating.
I suggest that such young people demonstrate that autonomy and protection can actually go hand in hand: Part of protecting children is empowering them. Allowing them to take responsibility for themselves and giving them the confidence to learn what are acceptable risks and to learn to protect themselves.Silencing children is not a way of protecting them.
