Philip Khor

I shortlisted 40 songs for Phailed Mix May 2009. Gotta fit into one 74 minute CD, so that’s roughly 12-15 songs. I need your help and suggestion on what should be included in Phailed. I plan to cut a copy for DJ Mike over at Club 9 so he can play it when we’re there. Nice huh?

I need your help to pick your top 5, then I’ll compile based on popularity, and I’ll make a final choice :) From this list only, thanks :)

oh, and one more thing.

GOOGLE CHROME SUCKS!

Yes, its fast. But its too buggy (at least on my Win XP configuration) and crashed often. I try upload on WordPress, with Shockwave, walau, super painful experience and time wasted. I’ll give it another 12 months lah. Meanwhile, I’m back with FIREFOX ver. 3 .. and the nice extensions like DownTheMall and FireFTP. everything just works.

Off to Ban Huat with Lukas, Yap and Bernard. Nice cheap food in middle of nowhere :)

Progress Report – Fibernet Malaysia Sdn Bhd

Fibernet Malaysia is a brand new player in the already-packed and competitive broadband industry in Malaysia. We are a wireless Internet Service Provider employing the next generation of WiMax technology covering strategic and profitable market segments and geographical areas around the Klang Valley. In the future, we plan to expand to densely populated areas in major towns such as Ipoh, Penang and Johor. Our aim is to provide first class services while maintaining profitability. To achieve this, we need to provide Business broadband on top of serving the higher end consumers who require fast and stable broadband. This company is fictitious but this report can also serve as a Business Proposal.

Introduction

Fibernet Malaysia offers one single product; that is broadband internet services.

Many other competitors and big players like Telekom Malaysia and Maxis has a wide portfolio of product offerings for different markets. By simplifying our product line-up, we can concentrate on providing what consumer and business customers need the most; fast and reliable internet access.

For businesses, we offer unlimited internet access with no restrictions. The only thing companies have to decide is how much they want to spend and what the speed requirements are.

For home users, we offer flexibility in choice of plans. You can go for “Speed” or “Volume” or “both”. To explain further, refer to the table below.

Options

For 2 mbit, additional 10 GB block of data allowance: RM 10

For 5 mbit, additional 10 GB block of data allowance:  RM 12

What happens when you “exceed” the quota allowed?

The bandwidth will be throttled. This means the connection will slow down to 10% full speed until the next quota cycle. You will still be able to surf the internet and do almost everything. It will be slightly slower, but tolerable.

Managing the Campaign

We intend to hire an external team to handle the advertising and promotional campaign. Being a new company and having little experience of this nature, it is best to look for professional help from people who have done it before.

Target audience and Reason for Advertising

Our general goal is to raise awareness of the availability of such a service. Being a new player, it is important that word spreads out to as many people as possible about the existence of our company. The course of action will be described in the final report.

The campaign will last 2 months (8 weeks)

The campaign will be ready when the technological infrastructure, the backend support as well as the employees have been well training and prepped for the launch.

The best time to start with the teaser ads is the 3^rd week of May. By the time the informational ads in week 2 start to appear, it would be almost the end of the month. Consumers would have more spending power and it might psychologically influence their decision.

Situational Analysis

[Direction of the campaign: Very simple, concentrate on one area at a time at most employing 3 media options at one time]

About the Firm

Fibernet Malaysia was fortunate to receive a RM 1,500 million investment from a oil-rich Arab investor to set up an ISP. The current broadband market is dominated by Telekom Malaysia with their huge international computer network infrastructure, so any new players would have to have huge financial backing to get started.

Bandwidth comes primarily from Singapore. The biggest internet “pipes” in this region is in Singapore. They are well connected to over 50 countries around the region with dedicated access to vital internet hubs in Europe, Japan and America. All that Fibernet has to do is to pull a fiber line to Singapore and connect to other Tier 1 ISPs including Singtel’s rich network to provide connectivity to the Internet.

Strength

1. We have the financial muscle to explore new technologies which might be costly
2. We are new, so we can learn from other competitor’s mistakes
3. We can meet customer’s demands for better reliable connections.

Opportunity

1. Current broadband (in our market) is either too slow (either pure speed, or latency), too expensive for what they offer, and only available in selected areas.
2. Our competitors “piggy-back” on two major networks, either Telekom Malaysia or Jaring. This means they’re merely resellers of bandwidth. We bring in our own bandwidth to the Internet.

Weakness

1. Our prices are higher than competitors
2. We are unsure whether customers are willing to pay for a better service
3. It will take at least 10 years to recoup the initial investment

Threats

1. Government regulation on new ISPs entering the market
2. Foreign investment might be limited. The government might want to protect the local industry and investors
3. Licensing of WiMax technology is based on bidding style auctions. It is difficult to obtain.
4. The nature of running a business in Malaysia is questionable (especially having to deal with big government projects)

Fibernet Malaysia’s Internal Factors

The management team makes decision with the help of advisors from different fields and specialties. The company structure is divided into teams with a Project Manager in charge of a specific task.

The firm has no past promotional campaigns, but the marketing team has experience with advertising. We will employ external help to kick start and help to plan our campaign.

In general, WiMax is viewed by the public as “overpromise, under-deliver”. The technology has the potential, but the implementation is very weak. The name has been tarnished by the constant delays in roll-out as well as the paltry bandwidth limitations. Investment cost is high, which is one of the factors to the failure and the bad image of this technology.

We plan to change all that with our new Service.

How are we to change the status quo? Well, we solved one problem by having a big financial advantage, so making full use of our resources would be key to success. Implementation of the technology is important, but it must be backed up with competent staff, promotional team as well as great advertisements.

External Influences

Our target customers are dissatisfied customers of current wireless broadband connections. We must admit that we cannot directly compete with fixed line products like Streamyx or Jaring’s Wired Business broadband. However, there is a lot of room to improve on WiMax implementations.

Our major competitor is P1 WiMax. The good thing is that they have cocked up and tarnished the WiMax name.

As described earlier, there are various legal and political issues involved in setting up the service. We have to bid for government license. The process is non transparent and often dubious.

Competitive Advantage. In this business, there are only 2 measures of success: Speed and Stability. That’s it. If we can achieve that at a reasonable price, then we would be successful.

Sales Objective. We intend to make a good impression to the Innovators and Early Adopters of the service. The way we are going to do that will be described in the final report.

Budget

We will refer to the “Media Guide” to see how much full page Ads will cost. Our advertising partner will guide us with the Billboard Ad as well as the Website. We intend to spend prudently, using the bottom-to-top. We would concentrate more on providing a good service. We do not want to over-promise and under-deliver.

The prices below are quoted from an Advertising Agency, TPMG.

RM 50,000 – Billboard Ad for billboard, half a year.

RM 88,000 – Online Campaign a website will cost up to RM80,000, but if to implement  banner ads like msn those type, maybe around RM8,000. This figure includes the promotion of the site through various online channels.

RM 24,000 – Newpaper ad, one week twice will cost around RM3 to 4k per month. This number is for 6 months.

RM 10,000 – Direct Marketing (Booths, etc). small direct marketing booth cost is low, maybe RM1k including promoters for 3 days.

We are planning to give “free trials” to bloggers / Tech review people as well. In order to save promotional cost, we plan to use cheap media blogs and social networking sites. 

Target Audience

Since this is a high end product, we will target the KL business district and the City Centre at first. The second phase will be the high class residential areas like Sierramas, Shah Alam, Damansara and Hartamas. Thirdly, we target the upper-middle blue collared workers demographic.

We position ourselves to be the BMWs and Mercedes of Internet Service providers.

Communication Strategy

We want to distinguish ourselves from P1 WiMax, who is well known for their dirty marketing tactics and the smearing of the Wimax name. We want to compete with Time, Jaring Business Broadband is Telekom Malaysia in terms of Quality of Service.

Among the strategies we use are:

1. Simple message. We fulfill two requirements of a good broadband service: Fast and Stable.
2. Our webpage loads fast through clever methods of optimization.
3. For our Promotional Booths and Demonstrations, we instruct our salespeople and agents to do real world, no gimmick tests and benchmarks of our service. P1 WiMax employs dirty tactics to make their service “seem” fast. After sign up, the customer satisfaction level is very low.

Creative Strategy

Yes, we do provide a huge distinct competitive advantage due to our huge investments.

[copy platform?]

[advertising execution?]

Draft Advertisements [note: attached]

Media Planning

Newspaper & Magazine. Newspaper has huge coverage and reach. Computer magazines have a specific target.

Scheduling, as above.

[end]

Philip Khor

philip@taylorians.com

Nais – bus to LCCT (Air Asia) and Singapore too. But it says executive, so I’m guessing ëxecutive price”also lah.

Black Girl and Melvyn

Jamie and Patrick Ho

Yang Wei and yours truly

Here’s a video of the action.

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I won 2 or 3 games, but flattened out in the last part. Maybe it was late lah, or maybe my Mojo ran out. Either way, it was a good hangout session with nice people.

When finishing, we met Kathryn and Jamie who just came back from Paroimia – and 2 mamak sessions in OUG area. Hahaha..

Melvyn told me its Week 10 already. Oh shit. Exams are so close – no more play play already lah. Finish up all the assignments, or else mati lah.

I went gym from 12-2, 4-5pm (pool from 2-4). Now I know where my cash all flow out to. GRRR… must reduce!~

Well, tomorrow is another day, the start of another week. God give me strength to carry on living life to the fullest!

“Its the small things in life that gives you the fuel you need to go on with life”

- Hock Khoon, 2003

Below are some of the junk I still keep with me. It reminds me of the good times and really gives me a reason to live. ok, I won’t be THAT depressed without it, but still.. these things encourage people.

“”Its GOOD to encourage one another”

- Jesus [citation required]

Here’s a girl’s take on Formula 1 (back in 2002):

Anyway, food for thought. If my memory serves me right, Hakkinen & Schumacher were leading with 80+ points, right? (And the rest with 60+). If Schumacher was winning & he was a person with low self esteem, why didn’t he purposely crash onto Hakkinen. That would assure him that he would win (they would have crashed and thus 0 marks to both of them).

Whoa. How insightful. How profound.

Weird humour. And Pihilip?? Hmmm… Interesting ;)

The dog, Brian from Family Guy?

Half-Malaysian , Guy Sebastian, Australian Idol?

Art-sy card

(the receipt at the back is for my Aztech Wireless DSL modem)

Chimpanzee card

Goodbye is hard indeed

From my brother Alex.

Since I’ve started gymming, I’m not THAT big anymore.

Although technically speaking, I’m still having BMI of about 32! (omg)

Fruits & Vase

Fishing, another artsy one

Blue is nice. Can’t go wrong with naked animals ;)

This is from Azman, the Royal Brunei Airlines pilot!

Ah… why don’t my current friends give me cards har???

I realise we have Muslim friends on this blog, so, click the Read More at your own risk :)

Sorry lah, pork is in our culture!

Read the rest of this entry »

Dad plans to visit my sister in Texas in a couple of months time. Being the geek of the family I decided to plan out 2 routes, one using budget airlines and one using mainstream full-service airlines.

Option A requires some MORE money due to the fact he’s travelling through UK where the exchange rate is 1GBP = 5.3 RM. That’s shitloads in our economy. But the good thing is that you get to enjoy Britain a bit.

Option B is more direct. He’ll get full service and its less tiring to checkin/out the huge baggages he’ll be bringing. And there are tonnes of advantages of flying with the big airlines.

Surprisingly though, the direct route is cheaper. Going East-wards towards LAX is faster than going via the UK. If I were to put a number, I’d say its a 5,000km saving. What would be cool is if he did both; travel via UK and come back via West Coast USA!

It can be done.

Please comment about the above route or suggest a better way to get to DFW

Mmmmmm…. iPod Touch 64GB anyone? US$299 with iPhone software 3.0?

So, end of the year we go watch Manchester United in the cold harsh winter? I think tickets (both-ways) to Stansted is only under RM 1700. All – in, the air tickets should be around RM 2,500 to Manchester. :) If booked early.

Yesterday I went for RPM class. I tire out in under 30 minutes. Here’s an article on what its all about [link]

In the class, I saw a dude with a Lance Armstrong jersey. Damn gaya weh :) But you need a nice body so it would look gorgeous. I got blobs of fats, so.. maybe a years time lah, ok? Here’s how it looks like:

I wasn’t comfortable with the bikes. I think I have big butts, so it kept poking the muscular areas as well as my bones. After 16 hours, I’m feeling the after-effects. Dammit. Maybe I need to get used to it lah.

There’s uphill, downhill, walking-pace, sprint, slow sections, varying resistance. Hahaha.. I kinda cheated when the instructor said “turn up one level, two levels, three levels”. He meant resistance, which would mean having to paddle harder. He can actually see that we’re cheating if we didn’t crank it up. LOL!

“Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”

On another topic, the horrorscope for yesterday was saddening :(

Daily horoscope for April 23, 2009
—————————————————————————–

Today’s Energy Level – High
       You need to say goodbye to someone, but it won’t be as difficult as you fear it will. You will see something today that makes you understand that this fork in the road holds two very rewarding (yet opposite) paths for each of you, so leaving them to go their own way isn’t a rejection. You now see that staying on the same path is a mistake for you both. You’re entering a strong selfless phase that will keep your heart warm even when you’re missing people you love.

Oh well. If its meant to be, so be it.

Its almost 10:00am. Time for Networking Fundamentals class with Ms. Hiap. She’s awesome, but as with all IT subjects, what is mostly taught is slightly outdated. Later today, bowling at 4pm, Sunway Pyramid.

Then tomorrow 9am meeting with our Student Council sponsor. And Sunday, Paroimia Part 2 with Kate, maybe Cain and Melyvn as well. Got 2 assignments to complete in 14 days, so we’ll keep that in mind too before making plans for crazy visits to crazy places :P

Friend Theology

- Who are you friends?

A quick check on Facebook shows I’ve just touched my 100th friend today. A big milestone, some may say.

But why aren’t I that *popular*? The average for my demographics is closer to 250 friends, peaking at 1000 for some. Well, the simple explanation for this is what is called the Friendship Pyramid. Its kinda like a MLM scheme, so please bear with me.

A. Top Level

This is the one you really trust and can talk to. Say, your girlfriend, or boyfriend. At most, you can have only 5 people in this category. If you find that you have more than that, then you’ll probably need to look deeper and sift them like a good cup of black tall coffee ;)

B. Best Friends

Paris Hilton has a TV series to look for the BBF – Best British Friend. The whole concept is hilarious and atrocious. And because of that, it is popular. Sometimes shitty ideas get so much publicity (albeit negative) but it really reached her objectives to gain fame and popularity.

Anyway, there are 20 contestants in an American Idol style elimination. Actually, more towards The Apprentice since she “fires” one of her friends every episode. The tasks she assigns are hilarious – one of which includes finding a “date” for Paris in UK. Erm.. okay, you’re hot, go get yourself a guy to sleep with. Why bother putting other souls through the pain?

The point is, for this category, it is *safe* to have 20 people in your group. Sounds excessive, but you need people of different skills and different personalities to really complete your life. Below is a non exclusive non exhausive list of examples of what I mean by “best friends”.

1. Melvyn Wee – Pool kaki

2. Yang Wei – Bowling kaki

3. Lukas – Driver and Food Kaki

4. Patrick – Business Partner

5. Mark Liew – Dude with Wads of cash wanting to invest in crazy shit

6. Ariel – The Photographer, Traveller and Creative gal

7. Nick Thien – Distant friend (geographically) with innovative and ambitious ideas

8. Rachel Ong – you got it all. All.

9. Cain – badminton kaki, the guide to social-life.

10. Kathryn – She’ll get things done. Anything *;)

C. Good Friends

This category is abit tricky and harder to filter out. These particular people are either not in your life (currently) because of distance. Or just because we have nothing in common to talk about at the moment. HOWEVER, in the future, if our paths meet, we REALLY can connect and do business with.

Among them are like my Brunei friends, my BM (hometown) friends, INTI & KDU Friends and random online friends.

I consider our IT Lecturer Mr. RC Ho to be in this category. The rest of the lecturers….er… you’re one level below, but its damn close =) [unless you give me HD, D then can consider lah]

D. Normal Friends

We say our usual Hi and Bye. I make a shitload of normal friends. I know the cleaner of my gym (Celebrity Fitness). We shake hands and greet each other every time we meet. Also I know the Old Town Kopitiam staff here in SS15 staff. The computer shop in Subang Square, Andex. My programme office people, the student council and all the rest of the college friends. Church people not in my cell group, but some are promoted to Category C lah. The coffee shop by College (Alex Chicken Rice) as well as the drink servers. The Soya Bean seller, KFC counter girl, the guys at Club 9 (although I’m quite close with the Dee Jay and the Rack Guy … believe it or not, we played a game of pool during his OFF time. Yeah, that’s how “friendly” we are!) The indian barber, and although I hate to admit it, I’m friends with most of the TOTO counter clerks and lottery sellers :P hee hee

E. Passer bys

I just nod and acknowledge these people. I didn’t put Pork Noodles staff in the Category D because they’re very lan-si. All you lan-si people go into this category lah.

Tip: If you’re successful, beautiful (hot), or just smart…. please be humble. You’ll do the whole world a lot of good.

F. Strangers

I am friendly towards strangers. I’m not “buaya” but it seems hot girls tend to respond better to my smiles. Hmmm…

G. Enemies

As far as possible, I try NOT to make any enemies. Even if bey-song with the fella, have to still smile and acknowledge the guy. I will not AVOID them or CONFRONT them but I rather reconcile if possible. If they still don’t want to forgive, then I will just give it a little more time. That’s my policy and philosophy in life.

I hope you guys learnt something from this post. Please comment lah, if you think you got something to say! Its 9pm now, so sien. But I purposely took time off to spend with myself lah. All the past few nights keep going out with friends. Sometime you just need to be a lone. Or be with your lubang ;)

In my earlier post, I wrote:

Life is like a game of dice. 6 possibilities, everybody on earth has an equal chance. Breaking down the math, yes, there are various variables and environmental factors. Whatever your roll was, there are about a billion people just like you. Its what you do with your life and the ways you impacted this world that will be remembered by history.

Here’s a graphic on what I mean by the above.

Take some time to digest the above information. Ready?

I guess it is pretty self explanatory. However, the proportion of people for different cases and scenarios might not be the same. There are close to 2 billion people born poor; right off the bat. Only 1,000,000 are born to Royalty, Prime Ministers and prominent figures.

My model might be incomplete. If you got suggestions, I’m really open to it.

But my theory remains that, hey, we are just the same.

Pop trivia: Graphic design wise, what is so special about the above graphics? Hint: Something to do with Photoshop.