Philip Khor » college

BFTP 2: The things

Philip Khor — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 23:59:23 +0000

Blast from the past is back!

Here are some graphics from back then (that I happen to save / share)!

International Marketing, Ms Neliza

Banana 69 aka Shawn Khik

Shinn87 (aka Atalude) Ahh.. good times!!

Melvyn Wee Wee

Choon San (CS) and his Nikon

Pizza & Catan

Sue Ann & Ashley

Tee Pee warning. When it first came out, it was a joke. Now its a phenomena!

Rabbit Cake and Oyster (oh-chien). Sunway area!!

The cartoon character resembles closely to the Oatmeal

“I got my eyes on you!”

Oh, and one more thing: Here is a map of my mouse movements for the past 2 hours. Dark circles denote where my cursor rested. Activity: Surfing the net. Cool huh?

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Windows 7: How is the experience?

Philip Khor — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:32:53 +0000

It is almost a month since Windows 7 was officially released. Leaked copies of the final version has been out for over 2 months. So, how was my experience?

5 major points I’d like to make.

1. Conflicts with some programs. I had an old version of Kaspersky. It caused my installation to be extremely buggy and unusable. Credit to them though for releasing a fix within days.

2. ReadyBoost (as described earlier elsewhere) is a godsent! You’ll notice signficicant boost in general performance by plugging in a Thumb drive and dedicating it for cache disk duties. The responsiveness is just breathtaking.

3. This is truly a multitasker. Past versions prior to Win 7 had terrible multitasking performances. Run an antivirus scan and your PC is basically useless. The code has been optimised and the core handles all your requests in small threads (pretty much like Mac OS X since its inception in 7 years ago!). Microsoft has finally caught up!

4. Everything works out of the box. With a Win XP installation, you won’t have Network connection or audio for example. You need the CD to get started. Win 7 includes basic drivers to save you the headache (at least for my setup!)

5. Try this. Open all 6 programs in Microsoft Office 2003 in one go. Chances are, you’ll take 4-5 seconds. On Win 7, it takes half the time! The programs are ready to use as soon as you click on the icons.

My first test went well. I needed a miracle, and I think I got it (gotta wait til mid Dec to find out). Here is an article related to my studies which is interesting to read:

http://www.ceaconline.org/pdf... [link]

In today’s fast paced world, change is imminent. In order to gain an advantage, you gotta “change” the Players, Added Value, Rules, Tactics and Scope of the Game.

Another article worth a look is the Holy Bible translated in Lolcat language! [link here and here]

I think its an internet phenomena / meme. If you go to Youtube, you can find cats do all sorts of crazy stuff, including playing an organ! They’re so “cute and adorable” thats why any cat related jokes are damn viral!

I’m using Google Desktop and Google Chrome now. Chrome has seen much improvements. And speed wise, its the best. Every tab is a different process. This means multi-core systems will see significant boost in speed! Give Chrome a try [link]

It is a beautiful Wednesday!

Here it is, my moment of Zen :)

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What is Internet Commerce?

Philip Khor — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:07:03 +0000

If you ask me to vomit out all that I learnt from this subject called “Internet Commerce” over the past 14 weeks, I could put everything I “think” I learnt in one sheet of A4 paper. Yes, this is how little we’ve learnt.

I think they purposely put RC Ho to teach us because on the surface, this is not a very important subject. It is just there to add credit points for us to graduate. But don’t get me wrong, I’ve learnt the MOST in this class in terms of social skills, organisational skills, man management, psychology, public relations, communication and presentation skills. Yupp.

Its not in the course objectives. Its a by-product of a well crafted syllabus. Kudos Taylors Business School admins.

Its kinda like the “unintentional safety” that most intermediate pool players execute once in a while.

I really thank RC Ho for all he hath done. We need more lecturers like him to really shape us for the working world. Lousy lecturers impart facts. Traditional lecturers impart knowledge. RC imparts wisdom.

The people at Twitter sent me an email confirming my suspecion as to why I was suspended. Yes, my philipkhor.com was serving malware last month and I twitted my site. Nevertheless, when restored I’ll redirect traffic to my new @philipkhor account. [check Social media links]

This morning, my trap worked. I had pocket 5s and flopped a set. On-the-gun, I checked and there was a bet, raise and re-reraise. Turn card, I all-in and yes this time it worked. I’m now at 30k chips.

After today I would have 2 subjects left in college. Once completed, I can reward my dad with a well deserved retirement… like he’s been working to kill time and fight boredom, yes… but partly also to fund my Toto addiction (as some close friends may know!) hahaha…

Lets see Melvyn can remember our appointment to go gym at 9.30am. I highly doubt it, but he’ll surprise me! Oh, I’ll be going to Singapore next Thursday. Woooot~!

It has been a great 4 years in Subang, helped by great college friends such as Lukas, Melvyn and Kathryn. Church helps too with the likes of Yang Wei, Mark and Patrick. “As we go on, we remember, all the times we, had together. And as our lives change, from whatever, we will still be, friends forever.” [youtube | lyrics]. Check out Obama Swats a fly [Youtube] and I’m a Boss [YouTube] & Microsoft is getting desperate [Digg]

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Champions League Bingo

Pippo — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:00:49 +0000

What a night it has been.

We lost. They were the better team, good job Barca. Good bye CR7.

I had Advertising presentation at 10am that day, and we only got started like, 9:15am or something, at the Mezanine floor. It wasn’t 100% great, but we met like.. 80% of the requirements, good enough for a pass, possibly a Credit.

Slept like a pig til 8:30pm and went for gym. The mamak at Carrefour had a blackout whilst having 20-30 customers. It was interesting to note their “crisis management” and I learnt a thing or two about management.

Tomorrow is bowling day. Also it is Networking Fundamentals assignment due date. Gotta put the pieces together like I always do, add salt and pepper and package it up in a nice envelope. Presentation, and first impressions are super important, so gotta put in more effort on that.

My Chinese Name is Khor Hock Khoon. In Mandarin, its Fu Kun. In Hokkien its Hock Khoon. In Kantonese its Fook Kin. In Angmoh, its Foo Goon. In Arabic, its Fuuuh Hooon.

The first character means: tax; give; endow; army; diffuse
The second character means: descendant; elder brother

So, either I’m:

- Army’s descendent / elder brother

- I deffuse my descendants / elder brother

- I TAX them (?)

- I give them (?)

I think I need to ask you Sifu Cina (yes Yap and Wilson and Darrel, I’m referring to you) to give me a sound and logical explanation.

This weekend I’ll be attending a Students Leadership Summit at Pan Pacific KLIA. Dress code is extremely formal, so I hope I don’t disregard and disrespect any protocol. Deep in my heart I wanna dress up as a Sheikh and a white-on-white robe complete with headgear. What do you think?

I flopped quads. Too bad I had 2000 chips left. Should have reloaded.

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Switching Web Hosts

Pippo — Thu, 21 May 2009 05:48:34 +0000

OK, I’m done with Rawanaz Hosting. I’m moving to EasyNet as we speak. So if this post doesn’t show up, then its stuck with Rawanaz. If it shows up at 4pm today, that means the guys at EasyNet are very very good at doing their job! Let the record show that the current time now is 1:50pm, just minutes away from my Advertising & Promotion tutorial.

Here’s something to read while we wait for the server to refresh!

From: Dr. Patrick Zuma

Audit Department

Africa Development Bank

TEL: +27-73-986-3114
EMAIL: patrickzuma2009@gmail.com

ATTN: Sir/Madam

I am Dr. Patrick Zuma, a senior staff of African Development Bank of South Africa {ADB}. I have an urgent and very confidential business proposal for you. An American Gold consultant/contractor with the South African Solid Gold Corporation, Mr. W. Ali. Bryant made a numbered time (Fixed) Deposit for twelve calendar months, valued at (Fourteen Million Five Hundred Thousand U.S. dollars) in my branch. Upon maturity, I sent a routine notification to his forwarding address but got no reply. After a month, we sent a reminder and finally we discovered from his contract employers, the South African Solid Gold Corporation that Mr. Bryant died in a plane crash in Alaska Airlines Flight 261 On further investigation, I found out that he died without making a WILL and all attempts to trace his next of kin were fruitless.

I therefore made further investigation and discovered that Mr. W Ali did not declare any next of kin or relations in all his official documents, including his Bank Deposit paperwork in my Bank. This sum of US$14,500,000.00 is still sitting in our Bank and the interest is being rolled over with the principal sum at the end of each year. No one will ever come forward to claim it. According to Laws of Republic OF SOUTH AFRICA, at the expiration of 7 (Seven) years, the money will revert to the ownership of the South African Government if nobody applies to claim the fund. Consequently, my proposal is that I will like you as a foreigner to stand in as the next of kin / business associates to Mr. A. Bryant so that the fruits of this old man’s labour will not get into the hands of some corrupt government officials. This is simple, I will like you to provide immediately your full names and address so that the attorney will prepare the necessary documents and affidavits that will put you in place as the next of kin. We shall employ the services of an attorney for drafting and notarization of the WILL and to obtain the necessary documents and letter of probate/administration in your favor for the transfer.

A bank account in any part of the world that you will provide will then facilitate the transfer of this money to you as the beneficiary/next of kin. The money will be paid into your account for us to share in the ratio of 70% for me and 30% for you. There is no risk at all as all the paperwork for this transaction will be done by the attorney and my position as a prominent senior official of ADB guarantees the successful execution and immediate conclusion of this transaction. If you are interested, please reply immediately via the private email address and telephone number above. Upon your response, I shall then provide you with more details and relevant documents that will help you understand the transaction. Please send me your confidential telephone and fax numbers for easy communication. Please observe utmost confidentiality, and be rest assured that this transaction would be most profitable for both of us because I shall require your assistance to invest my share in your country.

Awaiting your urgent reply.

You can contact me at all times.

Best Regards

DR. PATRICK ZUMA

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Interesting Developments in Student Council

Pippo — Fri, 15 May 2009 12:42:40 +0000

This is an internal e-mail circulating amoung Student Council members of Taylors University College. As usual, I’m the devil’s advocate. Read the story below and see how it goes!

Aaron Eu Jin aaronejgoh@live.ca

Hey guys, well after reading the report on the part talking about helping the needy and all, i would have to strongly agree with ronson on helping the less fortunate in our college itself.

on having long term objectives regarding the same matter, i guess another cheap and possible way to meet achieve that objective is by sponsoring a child program which is supported by World Vision. its only rm50 per month and this amount of money will enable the child that you sponsor clothes,daily needs, and also education. so i guess if the council would really want to have a long term objective, this would be a good way.

think about it this way. council has got 26 members, and if each member gives rm2 per month, its already rm52. and rm2 per month x 12 is only rm24 per year. is it really that hard to give rm24 per year per person compared to the amount of money we spend else where? well, i honestly must say that if you need a long term goal, think of this alternative. trust me, its really not hard when you think of how much you can help those kids with just rm50 a month. even i myself am sponsoring 2 child.

http://www.worldvision.com.my/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25&Itemid=42
(click on the link above to know more about it)

think about it =)

regards,
Aaron

Hi all,

Regarding Aaron / Mr. Ronson’s idea, i see 2 problems.

1. No ones will admit they’re poor.
2. We are not *THAT* rich. Minus 1 or 2 people possibly more lah…

1. College students have huge ego. Poor people have huge ego. One
time, we went to feed the poor people in KL. Wah, once they found out
we giving free food, they took out their HANDPHONE and call all their
“poor” friends. That, we don’t have a problem. But then, when we give
rice, vege, meat for them.. they selectively chose the meat and wasted
the vege and rice.

People are not appreciative. I think the most appreciative people are
the hardcore poor, not the “poor” people who can afford handphone,
computer and a Taylors education.

2. Even if the council is rich, I don’t think we want to fork out
cash. See how hard it is to get people to contribute to… say, a
trip, or t-shirt? We have it, but we rather spend it on Pool, and
TGIF.

I propose some solutions to the problems:

1. Instead of openly humiliating “poor Taylors students”, we make our
contributions more subtle. How about a simple free buffet for 20
people in main campus. First come first served. Council members wear
white / simple plain tshirt and jeans. Create a mood that, hey, we’re
just like you.

Another thing is lucky draw / slogan contest. Make random people fill
in form, just name, handphone no., programme, year and what they like
about taylors. give them stuff like what students need most – rm 10
handphone prepaid reloads, carrefour / KFC vouchers. If they use
postpaid, then they don’t need these :P

2. Donations to charity must be from the heart. No point forcing all
council members to contribute rm 24/year, no matter how “just” the
cause is. I think we should give freely, and not be pressured. If
you’re convicted to give RM 100, then go ahead. Make it anonymous, and
we’ll set up some fund for the Council.

Yes, I agree there are Taylor’s students who need help. We just gotta
device a method / plan that is subtle, yet non-intrusive and
non-degrading lah. Slogan writing contest is the way to go.
Furthermore, we get their particulars :)

Regards,
Pippo

first of all, wearing white or plain t-shirts and just jeans dont make people “poor”. i could be wearing la Coste t-shirt and a zara jeans and does that make me poor? hell no im sure!! instead the total opposite! and helping the poor dont mean that we are humiliating them, it just shows that we care for them and there by their sides.

well, that’s up to those who we have the intention to help then to appreciate and cherish the contribution and our intentions to help. if they accept it then good for them and it makes both parties (us and them) happy. but if they want to be selective, its their loss. they dont reap the greatest benefit from our contributions but at least we have done our part and set our ethics, goals and objectives right.

why would you think we should give out prepaid cards and stuff like that to random people in college. think of it this way, yes probably people wont admit they’re poor but why are they able to study in taylors? answer: because they know they are not fortunate enough to be FAMA sponsored like most of us (Father and Mother Association xD ) thus they work extra hard and go the extra mile to get scholarships and thats why they are here. if they can buy a phone, im sure they can support their usage cost. so why bother giving out like that. in that case, keep the money for our own better use!

why is it that we would spend our money and pool and foos or food rather than a trip, etc? how much does it cost to get those simple entertainment and pleasure opposed to going on a trip? think about it..its the money matter. well, whether or not we want to fork out is a different matter. but the main point here is that what is the basis and reason we would want to contribute? we do not need to fork out anything because the student council has got its own funds to support itself; its only the matter of how we use it..

here’s another point you should look at. no one is forcing anyone to give rm24 a year! its just a suggestion and a way if you want to look at things at a simpler way. no one’s gonna stab you or murder you if you dont want to give. its totally your choice. and mind me, im not convicted to give! i chose to give because i believe that there is better worth of that amount of money. and i dont mind if you want to call me big headed or whatsoever, im giving already 100 permonth not per year yeah?! if you think that your money is so precious to you and its not worth what you’re doing, its fine coz again this is for CHARITY purpose…not FORCE-rity..and to the others who are reading this and thinks the same way as me or vice versa, this is just a personal opinion. you might or might not agree with me but heck the world’s unfair so just live with it. you don’t always get things your way..

GOOD NIGHT =)

===

hi aaron,

i sense some hostility. no, i’m not attacking your ideas. i’m just offering ways we could make it better. i would like to refute your arguments, but frankly speaking, its not worth my time.

i just wanna make clear that i do not intend to insult your cause. I am all for charitable organisations and causes. if i have offended you, please accept my apology.

we’re just trying to work together. we got to be more open to ideas, thats all.

using words like “hell no” and “keep the money”, “no one is forcing” “i don’t mind if..” “stab or murder”, suggestions that i do not support “charitable causes”, “the world is unfair, live with it” “you don’t get things your way”

All these accusations doesn’t help your cause at all.

its like i’m a christian (yes i am) but i take drugs and look for hookers at the same time teach them about my religion. it doesn’t make sense if you contribute, yet your character do not reflect the charitable nature of your cause.

in my opinion, there are better and more gentle ways to convey a message, especially over e-mail.

again, I apologise if the suggestions were deemed offensive. good luck in your causes.

peace.

sincerely,
Philip

====

Hi All,

It is always good to know that you guys are passionate about charitable work e.g. blessing a poorer community.

Please brainstorm for a project. It may not be necessary super mega huge but a simple one. It’s good that many of you have a lot of ideas. However, please choose one that is intentional, feasible and you guys have the capacity to do it.

I would like to caution all that communication among each other is very important and please do not make any assumption. Having contradicting ideas and opinions are normal and I hope that no matter how small an idea is, please treat it with respect. It is through the little little ideas we have that we can do great things.

Regards,

Ronson

— DISCLAIMER — This email, including any attachments, is confidential and is solely intended for the addressee(s). Access to this e-mail by anyone else is unauthorised. Its contents may be legally privileged and if you are not the intended recipient of this email, any disclosure, copying, distribution or any action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on it, is prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this email in error, please contact the sender immediately by return email or telephone and delete/destroy the message. We do not accept liability for any corruption, delay, interception or unauthorised amendment of the e-mail or their consequences.

==
hey hey philip,
dont get all sarcastic okay.
i didnt see anything wrong with the way aaron wrote his mail.
i dont feel the HOSTILITY which you were talking about.
i think you’re abit sensitive. :/
it’s like, whenever ppl disagree with you, you tend to get pushy and all uptight about it.
you dont have to act this way.
we’re all in the council together.
aaron was just merely suggesting.
what he said was true, if those ppl want to prioritise their dignity over accepting the fact that they are in need of help, then, it’s just too bad for them.
we’re not going to force them either.
and for your information, the way he talks/dresses/acts does not prove how ‘charitable’ he is.
perhaps, learn the fact that you cannot judge the book by it’s cover.
you said there are more gentle and better ways of conveying the mail, would you say you were doing the same as your advise?
in my opinion, just chill out, and discuss about it.
do remember that this isnt a formal mail ya.
you dont need those ‘yours truly’ and stuff.
that explains the terms we’re using which seems offensive to you.
it’s just some online discussion among friends, okay.
chilling philip.
chilling.

==

hi val,

thanks for your e-mail.

yes, i agree its all about perception. from the way i see it, aaron was quite pissed. so i was just trying to apologise if I offended lah. now you accuse me of being soft. and we merry go round once again.

i think to half of the members, they could sense the frustration on aaron’s part of my first reply. i re-read my two e-mails and i still can’t seem to find any fault, or in any way that “disses” anyone any organisation anywhere. once again, please accept my apology for offending anyone.

[quote]

dont get all sarcastic okay.
[/quote]

right off the bat, you diss me. its like, “hey hey random stranger, FUCK YOU! *wink*”

i don’t really mind your comments lah. but yes, i value your opinion about me.

i don’t mean to get all preachy. however, if we as the Student Council intend to represent the student body, how can we be chilling all the time. yes, there are times we can fool around. but there are times where serious matters are being discussed. like in aarons case, he wanna help taylors poor students and do charitable works. yes, its fine. you fail to see my point. i’m merely suggesting ways to implement his ideas. i’m not calling people names, or insulting someone’s cause. no, i’m not.

[quote]

if those ppl want to prioritise their dignity over accepting the fact that they are in need of help, then, it’s just too bad for them.

[/quote]

You aim is to help, yet you are neglecting the fact that people don’t want your help in a public manner.

My solution: Doing things subtly, organising contests and free food.

Now why am I suddenly the bad guy?

[quote]

it’s like, whenever ppl disagree with you, you tend to get pushy and all uptight about it.
you dont have to act this way.

[/quote]

You know Val, they say it takes one to know another. How did your idea of having people write notes for lecturers go? My micro-blogging / twitter idea was stupid and impractical, wasn’t it?

yes, i fight for what i think is right. that’s what leaders are made of, not by calling votes and going with the majority. yes you can call for vote, but you must be able to be man enough to go against what your team wants, if necessary.

influential and famous leaders have to take drastic actions that contradict popular vote. just ask bush, or obama, or badawi.

i guess people with strong personality will get their ideas through. business people, the westerners (american, canadian, brits and aussies) in general will always want their idea go through. Us asians will just be their workers following instructions cuz our ideas keep getting shot down.

no offense to anyone, but look at the Exco. All are business students. How big is the Business faculty in relation to the whole Taylors Subang? there. you got your reason why participation within the council is so weak, and in shatters.

There is no power sharing. There is no accountability. And the red tape is fucking rediculous.

[quote]

and for your information, the way he talks/dresses/acts does not prove how ‘charitable’ he is.
perhaps, learn the fact that you cannot judge the book by it’s cover.

[/quote]

You hit reply before you know what’s going on.

I was suggesting that instead coming in our Ferrari and SLRs wearing gucci and armani, we could maybe wear something plain and simple. Read up on Psychology and you will know why. This, we do during the free food handout / charitable event we are having.

On a normal occation, I would not reply to any council e-mails. We’re becoming just like NATO.

I can understand why aaron might be abit pissed. The timestamp reads May 15, 2009 2:42 AM. One rule of e-mail is that you would not send e-mail in the middle of the night, cuz it affects judgment. Now, i’m not judging anyone, but its something worth thinking about.

tell you what, how about val, aaron .. we go for teh tarik on me =) talk in person, then everything will be cleared. correct? :) then we all can continue productively in peace and harmony. the internet fucks up our communication.

with love and respect,

pippo

p/s on a worst case scenario, you can call for an emergency meeting to vote & remove this “annoyance”. i’ll get my programme director to send a replacement and then your council can run effectively?

====

the end.

damn, i’m getting too overanalytical now. hope they accept my teh-tarik request =)

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Party 25 May 2009 @ 6pm

Pippo — Tue, 12 May 2009 23:30:35 +0000

There will be party at the end of the month

Event: Internet Commerce dinner with RC Ho

Date: 25 May 2009

Time: 6 – 11pm

Location: Yuen Steamboat, Sunway

Other plans: Bowling at Sunway Pyramid (bring socks)

RSVP: Visit Party 2009 website

Contact: pip [at] thepippo.com

Yes, you can bring your friends along.

Yes, there is a limit of 30 people (3 tables) first come first served. Please RSVP. Thanks :)

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Long long Tuesday

Pippo — Tue, 12 May 2009 01:59:39 +0000

In 10 minutes time, I got a 10-12noon class. Then, there’s Teachers Day at Taylors University College. After that its 2-4pm with RC Ho doing Internet Commerce, followed by Gomathi Part 2, with DMM lab.

Gym at 6 with Pat and Melvyn. We’re gonna do Party Jam with Luciano.

Need time off to complete two big assignments in Networking Fundamentals as well as Advertising and Promotional Management, both due very very soon. To add salt to insult on top of injury, I got Internet Commerce assignment also due Friday. But this one is much more easier cuz I only have to search for 10 journal articles from the Interweb.

Lim kit siang is on twitter @limkitsiang . Of course, you can follow me to @thepippo

Meeting with a few people regarding 2-3 web projects, not to mention, finals in 3 weeks time. Exciting times are ahead. And also a Manchester United match later tonight (or possibly Thursday morning).

Yesterday we went to Jalan Alor for some good foods. We had stingray, pork, sambal kangkung and a forth-dish. We wanted to have durian at the street corner but the uncle wanted rm 16 per kilo. The durians were small, but we reckon 2 durians would set us back for about RM 50.

I guess they gotta put that price lah. if they sell us too cheap, then the real durian-kaki would complain and wanna pay our “student rate” as well. As Donald Trump would say, “location, location, location”.

I downloaded about 700MB over 3 hours on my Maxis 3G at home. If you follow the iPhone 3G data plans, they give you only 1000 MB per MONTH for rm 150! Crazy hor? And I swallow up all of it so fast. Now, i *think* they banned me already. I can’t seem to surf the net, so I gotta rely on the school network.

Maybe later I’ll give Maxis a call.

Actually I ported over back to Digi due to the better rates. I did it last week but still no response from them. The red tape for Mobile Number portability is simply amazing, they don’t want to steal customers easily, and of course, who would wanna lose their customers to their competitors.

Wah, the Ipoh / Perak situation is crazy man. The speaker dowan to get off the Speakers seat in the Dewan. The law in favour of the opposition with our honourable leader appealing to the courts. Its chaotic.

I think its a good time to pray for political and economical stability in our nation.

No streamyx. So I guess I will have to bug them too.

Live long and prosper.

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Star Trek 2009 DVDrip YWownzor kuchai torrent

Pippo — Fri, 08 May 2009 01:24:20 +0000

Ok, I’m just bs-ing about the title hoping to get YW into trouble!

Watched Star Trek with Aidan, Pat and Lke.

It is amazing. Its safe to say it is the best movie I’ve watched for the past 12 months (I haven’t watched many, actually).

I used to be a fan of Enterprise back in those days. I’m always amazed with quantum physics, astronomy and space/time travel. Why I didn’t pursue? Because in this field, you have to be the best. Its either hero or zero, there’s no 50% P, 65%C, 75%D.

I really liked the show and recommend anyone to go to the cinema to watch it.

A busy week is finally coming to an end. This leads us to a busy weekend, filled with meetings, appointments, yum char and pool sessions. No bowling today for whatever-god-kn0ws-what reason, but thats ok.

I’ll probably spend some time to complete my semester-long-ongoing Internet commerce assignment which requires us to collect articles (since 2005) regarding the subject matter. Must be a journal. Some people found the cheat to how to Google for it. I haven’t. So I’ll spend the weekend completing that task. I will have to do my Advertising Assignment #2 also which involves creating a promotional plan for a Broadband company.

After those two assignments are settled, then its time to hit the books in preparation for the final exams in 3 weeks time.

Oh, and to my sister who is reading this, remember our lunch date on Saturday. Preferbly in 1U / Ikea / PJ / Subang area lah, so its convenient for me. Thanks a lot :) Saturday is wesak day too.

Class start in a few moments. Anyway, since moving to the new house, I do not have internet access. I dongle my HP to Maxis’ 3G network, and subscribed to the Unlimited plan for about RM 3 a day. So about 1 week downtime (Thanks to Terrorkom and TM nut) I have to fork out RM 21 just to keep connected. Oh well, it is and has been a fun experience playing with 3G.

This is REALLY a true friend [link]

Good day everyone. Live long and prosper.

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Party 25 May 2009 @ 6pm There will be party at the end of the month...

How to Ask For Donations?

Pippo — Tue, 05 May 2009 07:59:05 +0000

Allow me to bore you with another one of my assignments. This one is Decision in Model Marketing (or DMM). It involves using Excel to make business decisions.

I created a 33,000KB MS excel spreadsheet just to compute 1 thing. 1 fact.

E-mail and Snail mail are EFFECTIVE in getting Donations for Charity

Mmmm… I’ll be rich! But yeah, there are limitations… the other alternative was Telephone, and I prove that its not that good if you use Telephone.

One thing that would be totally awesome would be the Internet. I aligned my APM and DMM and IC and NF knowledge to deduce that internet is the way of the future. :”)
[sorry the images dun load properly cuz i didn't upload them]

Executive Summary

Moonlighters is a Not for Profit organization facilitating a system of giving money, food or help free to those who are in need because they are ill, poor or homeless, to provide money or help in this way. As a charitable organization, they rely on public donations to run their day-to-day activities.

During their recent mail campaign, only 5% of the donor list made a donation. On a database of 20,000 people, the net return was a paltry $10,000.

This report uses Microsoft Excel and some Statistical Analysis through Regression to find out a suitable model to explain and improve the current targeting methods. Out of the 26 variable provided, only 6-8 variables are useful in determining the amount donated. However, other demographical and socio-economical factors can help explain further on the models being used.

In short, we concluded that Mail and Email are the best ways to send promotional materials. Our ROI was between 5-8 times, whereas the potential for Telephone to convert into pledges was a very slim 2 times.

We mustn’t completely ignore the effectiveness of telephone. This is because, with a good telemarketer and an up-to-date contacts list and fact file, many people can be persuaded to contribute or donate.

Whilst the above 2 methods are good, the future lies within the Internet. With varying technologies in place, online marketing is the way of the future. Technologies such as social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace helps links the wealthy and influential people on cyberspace. A lot of information can be displayed on a corporate website which will make the organization more transparent and relevant.

Another common promotional activity is through Blogs. Web logs or Blogs are websites created by an average Joe who loves telling the world about what has been happening. Various Web 2.0 technologies enable linking and searching of relevant and up to date sites. This introduces viral marketing where when someone learns about something interesting or beneficial, he can easily share it to the world, may it be through e-mail, Twitter, blogs, social-network sites, or social-news site. Once the awareness has been created in the blogosphere, the traditional News networks will pick it up, blowing the whole campaign to into an astronomical scale.

Introduction and Statement of the Management problem

This assignment requires us to find ways to better target our advertising campaign to obtain better returns.

A list of 20,000 records was given. We used a two-pronged attack configuration.

1. Remove all Non Donors (or people who have never donated)
We ended up with only 989 donors.
We then analysed on how best to reach them; either by Phone or Email or Mail

2. Using the same 20,000 records, we found out who can be reached; some by phone, some by e-mail and the rest by mail. We ended up with 11,067 records.

Some assumptions we have to make are:

1. Homephone is the only telecommunication option available to them. There is no mention of handphones, pagers or other methods which are common in today’s world. Therefore, these findings and models are based on Home telephone only, which not many people have nowadays.

On the same note, this could be an advantage because when a person is at home, he is usually relatively free and available to talk. On a handphone, he might be driving or having a class or meeting when the telemarketer calls.

2. Since this project is a Donation for Charity, the amount different people of different demographics gives may vary greatly. Not all donors are rich. Not all rich people are donors.

3. When disclosing information to researchers and marketers, people tend not to be entirely honest. Certain private information might be misconstrued.

4. Data might have changed between the time of capture and when the data is processed. A person might have changed job, changed house, bought a PC / phone, bought more Cars or a senior citizen might have died. To ensure a good model, the list must be current and updated.

Description of Analytical Model

Step 1: Creating dataset containing Current donors

Using the sort function to sort the Donation Column, I deleted all records with the values “0” meaning that this person did not donate to the charity.

Step 2: Variables which are useful indicators

I found that the variables Lifetime, Gifts, Average Gift, Promotions, RecentGifts, Sales, Cars, Technical are significant depending on the model used.

Years since First / Last is not that useful because donator’s behavior changes over time. In different phases of a person’s life, he might have heavier personal commitments like house and car loans, marriage or holiday expenditures. As long as a person has donated before, it is safe to assume they are willing to donate again.

It is harder to get non-donors to donate, and the Returns might not be as good.

The Major Donor Indicator was not used because only 48 records were found. There was no notable pattern observed.

Age is not a factor.

Home Phone / PC Owner / Catalog Shopper – these three variables do not affect whether or not a person donates.

MedHouseInc – Donation is voluntary. Not all donors are rich. Not all rich people are donors.

Occupation based percentages which are significant are included in the results below.

Percentage of Senior Citizens in the community did not affect the Regression results.

Education is also not a factor when targeting for donors.

Results

Basic Information

1. There are 989 Current Donors.

2. Using the CountIf function in excel, here are the results:

10,116 people can be contacted by phone
2,227 people can be reached by e-mail
1,276 of the above can be contacted by BOTH phone and e-mail

Of the 989 Current donors:

Total 989
Phone 476
Email 113
Phone & Email 58

No phone/email 458

Step 2: About the Model

As a general guide to whether or not a value is Significant, the t Stat must be greater than modulus / absolute 2. The P-value must be less than 0.05

Step 3: The models

Total Current Donor

Donations (Y) = 18.403 + 0.059 (Lifetime) – 0.542 (Gifts) + 1.317 (AvgGifts) – 2.935 (RecentGifts) + 29.483 (Sales)

By Phone

Donation (Y) = 3.998 + 2.407 (AvgGift) – 1.325 (RecentGifts) – 46.954 (Technical) + 32.577 (Sales)

By E-mail

Donation (Y) = 13.881 + 0.085 (Lifetime) + 1.201 (AvgGift) – 0.265 (Promotions) – 3.922 (RecentGifts) + 62.225 (Sales) + 33.913 (Cars)

Final Model Chosen

Out of TOTAL Current Donors

SUMMARY OUTPUT

Regression Statistics
Multiple R 0.711633
R Square 0.506422
Adjusted R Square 0.503911
Standard Error 16.44714
Observations 989

ANOVA
df SS MS F Significance F
Regression 5 272829 54565.81 201.7157 5.7E-148
Residual 983 265909.8 270.5084
Total 988 538738.8

Coefficients Standard Error t Stat P-value Lower 95%
Intercept 18.403 2.031 9.063 0.000 14.41797
Lifetime 0.059 0.009 6.586 0.000 0.041164
Gifts -0.542 0.096 -5.638 0.000 -0.7307
AvgGift 1.317 0.074 17.862 0.000 1.172694
RecentGifts -2.935 0.513 -5.718 0.000 -3.94203
Sales 29.483 9.603 3.070 0.002 10.63782

Donations (Y) = 18.403 + 0.059 (Lifetime) – 0.542 (Gifts) + 1.317 (AvgGifts) – 2.935 (RecentGifts) + 29.483 (Sales)

By Phone

SUMMARY OUTPUT

Regression Statistics
Multiple R 0.7478
R Square 0.5592
Adjusted R Square 0.5554
Standard Error 14.6394
Observations 476

ANOVA
df SS MS F Significance F
Regression 4 128046.9 32011.72 149.370 0.000
Residual 471 100940.5 214.3111
Total 475 228987.4

Coefficients Standard Error t Stat P-value
Intercept 3.998 2.893 1.382 0.168
AvgGift 2.407 0.114 21.125 0.000
RecentGifts -1.325 0.632 -2.097 0.037
Technical -46.954 27.071 -1.734 0.083
Sales 32.577 11.618 2.804 0.005

Donation (Y) = 3.998 + 2.407 (AvgGift) – 1.325 (RecentGifts) – 46.954 (Technical) + 32.577 (Sales)

By E-mail

SUMMARY OUTPUT

Regression Statistics
Multiple R 0.7480
R Square 0.5595
Adjusted R Square 0.5346
Standard Error 13.55
Observations 113

ANOVA
df SS MS F Significance F
Regression 6 24723.48 4120.58 22.443 0.000
Residual 106 19461.86 183.6025
Total 112 44185.35

Coefficients Standard Error t Stat P-value
Intercept 13.881 8.551 1.623 0.107
Lifetime 0.085 0.026 3.244 0.002
AvgGift 1.201 0.278 4.319 0.000
Promotions -0.265 0.109 -2.427 0.017
RecentGifts -3.922 1.332 -2.945 0.004
Sales 62.225 26.093 2.385 0.019
Cars 33.913 12.367 2.742 0.007

Donation (Y) = 13.881 + 0.085 (Lifetime) + 1.201 (AvgGift) – 0.265 (Promotions) – 3.922 (RecentGifts) + 62.225 (Sales) + 33.913 (Cars)

3. Conclusion / Recommendation

When doing regression analysis, we should be careful to never assume and generalise who will donate and who would not donate. Donation is a form of free will and although the data shows that donation is wholly contributed by specific groups, we can never be too sure to assume the other specific groups will not donate later on in the future.

The reason for them not donating could be probably because it is not the right timing at the time of survey.

Therefore with this theory we should still include the other specific groups but minimize the campaign cost on these “less-value” targeted groups. As for the specific groups that have been successfully donating, we should focus more on them by focusing our attention more to them.

Pros & Cons of 3 alternative campaign strategies:

Strategy 1: Mail

After filtering the Current Donors, we are left with 989 records. These people are the ones we intend to send mail to. The total cost is $2890.

The estimated donations received using the model is $27099 which garners a profit of $24209

Strategy 2: Telephone

There are 476 people from current donors who are contactable by Telephone.

Putting in the numbers into the model developed for Telephone, we get $6324 estimated donation giving $4325 profit.

Strategy 3: E-mail

Very few people have access to a Home computer. There were 113 records found. The donations estimated is $10414 with a profit of $8858

Below is a table with further information

TOTAL COST ESTIMATED DONATIONS Profits ROI (X)
Strategy A Mail
Fixed Cost 2000
Individual cost 0.9
Count 989 2890 27099 24209 8.4

Strategy B Telephone
Fixed Cost 1500
Individual Cost 1
Count 476 2000 6324 4325 2.2

Strategy C Email
Fixed Cost 1500
Email 1
Count 113 1557 10414 8858 5.7

From the previous table, we can deduce several interesting findings:

1. Traditional Mail is still the most effective way to encourage donation, closely followed by E-mail.

This is so because a lot of information can be delivered through these two media.

A potential donor can take his time to read the material in his leisure time and make a decision whether or not to donate. There is nobody rushing him, and he would psychologically feel more generous to have the proposal in front of him before committing an amount of money to the charity.

With modern software, email and letters can be personalized with salutations.

2. Telephone is not so successful because it is not the right way to sell or market to a client / donor. The target might be busy driving, cooking, chatting with friends, busy with work or having a bathe. If they are not reachable, they are unlikely to call back. Even if they do, the response would not be that good.

In general, tele-marketers have a bad name. They are usually associated with credit card scams, fake lottery winnings and pyramid schemes as well as unsolicited spamming or request for information via surveys. People usually hate it when they receive phone calls from marketers.

A grand total of 11,067 people can be contacted either by Home Phone or E-mail.

1,587 people have been accounted for in my models.

Therefore, a total of 9480 have yet to be reached or has not made a donation.

Recommendations

A. Who to TARGET?

We have identified 9,480 people being potential targets because they have not yet donated to the charity. There is no way to categorise this group of people because we do not know how much they are willing to donate.

As said earlier, not all donors are rich. Not all rich people are donors.

B. How to campaign (which methods)?

Based on my findings, the campaign to use is Postal Mail and E-mail.

Week 1 – Send out postal mail
Week 3 – Send out phone / e-mail reminders to remind the people whose records are available

C. Various alternative mixes to get the maximum donations.

The most important asset of this charity is the amount of existing donors (or people who have donated before). This is the most valuable group because they are known to be quite generous.

Given a budget, we should allocate about 60% of available funds to entice them (the 1,587 people) to give more donation.

The balance of 40% should be targeted to the 9,480 people who are potential targets but have not yet made a donation.

Another thing to look out for is % sales in the neighbourhood. This group of people have consistently been giving generously.

4. Technical Appendices – Methods

1. Make copies of the Original Data for manipulation.

2. Clean the list using the sort function
a. Make copies of the cleaned data

3. Use the sort function again to find HomePhone = 1 and PCOwner = 1
a. Make copies of the cleaned data

4. To build a model, select Donation as (Y) and up to 16 variables at one time.

5. There are some variables which are not able to be compute, like Age. In this case, we merely remove them from our model.

6. Using t Stat > |2| and P-value < 0.05, Anova value F > 5 and significance F < 0.05 , we can evaluate whether how good the model is.

7. R square is the percentage change of Y (in this case Donation) for a unit change of X (in this case, the 6-8 different variables chosen to be Significant)

8. To calculate Estimated Donations (assuming 100% response), we just apply the X value being the Count. For example, there are 989 people who can be contacted by e-mail, so we replace X with 989 in our model.

9. Residual Plot in a regression offers a good example of what a problem-free plot should look like. There is no odd fan or curved trends in the plot, the average of the residuals is zero, and the points are equally represented about the x-axis. This residual represents the difference between the observed response variable Y and the value predicted by the regression line.

10. Line of best fit (trend line) - A line on a scatter plot which can be drawn near the points to more clearly show the trend between two sets of data.

The line of best that rises quickly from left to right is called a positive correlation.
The line of best that falls down quickly from left to the right is called a negative correlation
Strong positive and negative correlations have data points very close to the line of best fit..
Weak positive and negative correlations have data points that are not clustered near or on the line of best fit.
Data points that are not close to the line of best fit are called outliers.

Formulae

1. Use
Data | Sort | Sort By
Then Select the Field to sort by.
It doesn’t matter ascending or descending, so as long as the Zeros are separated from the Ones. We then delete the appropriate values and records accordingly.

2. Using Cell-Referencing to ensure completeness and accuracy of data

='Current Donor FINAL'!B17+'Current Donor FINAL'!B18*Master!C13+'Current Donor FINAL'!B19*Master!C13+'Current Donor FINAL'!B20*Master!C13+'Current Donor FINAL'!B21*Master!C13+'Current Donor FINAL'!B22*Master!C13

In this example, the regression output on “Current Donor FINAL” sheet is used in the Master sheet pointing to the Count (number of donors). The predicted output is extremely accurate but for analytical purposes, we round it to 3 decimal places.

=ABS('Phone REGRESSION FINAL'!B17+'Phone REGRESSION FINAL'!B18*Master!C18+'Phone REGRESSION FINAL'!B19*Master!C18+'Phone REGRESSION FINAL'!B20*Master!C18+'Phone REGRESSION FINAL'!B21*Master!C18)

Sometimes in regression, a negative value may be obtained. In this case, the Absolute or Modulus function is used

Residual Plots

If the residual plot is random (and the conditions t Stat > |2| and P-value < 0.05, Anova value F > 5 and significance F < 0.05 are met), this variable is significant

Line Fit Plot

Note that there are many “outliers” where the blue dots do not align with the pink dots.

Due to the uncertain nature of donations being unpredictable, the R-Square for all models described in this assignment is between 50-55%. This means that based on a demographic or characteristic profile of a donor, there is a coin-flip chance that he will donate to our charity and proving that my model is correct.

[the end]

Student Name: Philip Khor
Student ID: 0602D56499
Tel: 016 9465088
E-mail: philip@taylorians.com

(word count: 2700 words)

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