As I was walking home today, I begin to wonder about time-sensitive offers:

Take for example, Giordano. They sell some decent apparel but one thing that strikes anyone walking past their boutiques is that, it is ALWAYS on Sale! 50% – 70% signs all year round. Initially, it did work; but as consumers become more aware of this, the appeal wore off (pun intended).

Then there’s the Crocs Warehouse Sale – rubbery shoes made with holes which go for 200 bucks and above, now yours at 70% off! People drive all the way from the northest-north of KL to the southest-south of Lembah Klang to flock their warehouse in an obscure place in PJ just to grab one … one dozen for their whole family ;)

You would think by now consumers would be immune to all the gimmick that goes around in terms of Marketing stuff — but surprisingly, we are still suckers for deals.

Take Groupon and other group deals site. You know they’re raking in HUUGE profits even at the discounted prices you’re paying, right? Sure, all day karaoke + buffet at RM30 is a ‘no brainer’ for you, but do you really need to click on every other deal that seems impossibly awesome?

Then how come the Kopi Tiam down the street are not offering groupons for their RM 1.50 Coffee Ice, giving coupon holders 50 sen off? If all the deals on groupon is so good, surely they need to be in the business to stay afloat, don’t they? How about the mamak stalls, or anything that forms your staple day-to-day requirements like.. groceries and foodstuff?

My point is, the reason COMPANIES and BUSINESSES are publishing / advertising on deal sites is because they want to create a sense of value in their grossly overpriced merchandises. You wouldn’t pay 10 bucks for a cup of coffee normally, but with a groupon giving  50% off, you wouldn’t hesitate. Truth is: the cup of coffee isn’t worth that much really.

And the target audience is .. young working female adult / college student with severe impulse to buy whatever she deems ‘worth it’. Kinda like pornography to a boy reaching puberty, sites like Groupon are their pornography.

.

Then there’s the thing about asking for deadline extensions. Back in college, lecturers would give students weeks, and months to prepare for a simple report / assignment. Most of it can be done in 2 good focused days. Nevertheless, it is in student culture to do it last minute, and beg the lecturer for an extension. And most of the times, lecturers budge! This bad work attitude gets carried forward to the real working life! And usually it’s a problem for a freshie on his first year of work :-) Just speaking from my experience :P

That’s all I have to say, shoot me a comment!

,

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For many years, Historians have been busy recording the series of events that shape our world today. In those accounts, often times it gives you a glimpse of what actually happened as perceived by that author of the paper. Most of it, goes unchecked nor verified nor disputed. Take for example, the freedom fighters and the protectors of Malaya in the 1950s. Without divulging into the issues, what we read today is a result of what the rulers and people in power currently have intended. In any war, may it be in Ancient China or the sizzling-hot wok of the Middle East, ultimately it is the winner who decides which course History takes.

I find that amusing; for in a 10 year period since 9/11, you will find plenty of full-length books, articles, conspiracy theories, science journals, myth-busters and various social commentary by Economists, Psychologist, and the lay man on the street explaining the series of event that unfold and how things panned out. Depending on whom you trust, the story of that single event can spew into many variations and spin-offs. That’s just 10 years!

And that is what makes humans unique.

We have amazing senses to guide us. Some claim a sixth sense of ‘intuition’ on top of their senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. A while ago, computer scientists determined that our brain receives 11.5 Megabytes of input from our 5 senses a second. If you are talking 1990s era computing, that would be about 36,000 floppy diskettes every hour! As our brain capacity is limited, the filters which have been pre-programmed by ‘evolution’ through our observations have determined the 0.1 Megabyte of processed information that might be useful in our future decisions. The 99% of the other data is deemed background noise, good enough that our brain ignores it completely.

I have been fortunate to visit different countries around the world. When visiting some of our poorer neighbours in the ASEAN region, two things strike me. Firstly, is their sense of community. Most of them live peacefully together, helping one another and regularly fellowship with one another. Compare that to the busier developed cities like Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. People live in gated communities and guarded service apartments; and even so they seldom make contact with their immediate neighbours.

Jesus Christ said “Love your neighbours as you love yourself”. The sense of community is deeply rooted in tradition and cultures back then. The muslim Prophet Muhammad when asked “who should be considered neighbours?” to which The Prophet replied, “Anyone living forty houses to the North, South, East and West – he is your neighbour”. *citation required (productivemuslim.com/increasing-productivity-lesson... for more accurate translation in English)

It is quite obvious that the trust between neighbours have evaporated. Greed has crept in to our society, from the top to the bottom into the core. As the world gets from 5 billion people in the 1980s to the 7 billion by 2012, scarcity of resources and uncertain times lie ahead. Improved medical healthcare, better knowledge of a good healthy diet, deep understanding of well being means that people live longer and fall sick less often.

Let’s talk about migration. Back in 1994, my family were immigrants in Brunei Darussalam. Dad was a Deputy Principal of a school there (which I also attended for the whole 9 years). The year was 1415 Hijrah and I was in Standard / Primary 2. They made me learn all 12 months of the Muslim calendar, Muharram, Safar, Rabiulawal, Rabiulakhir, Jamadilawal, Jamadilakhir, Rejab, Syaaban, Ramadhan, Syawal, Zulkaedah and Zulhijjah).

Back in 1994, most of Brunei were either locals (The Awangs and Dayangs, Pehins, Dato’s and Pengirans) and then there’s the workers – the imported Brits, Aussies and Filipinos. There’s a nice bunch of Malaysian workers too as the country borders three towns – Limbang, Miri and Lawas. And to reach the Duty Free port of Labuan, one had just to take the speedboat ride an hour away from Muara Port in Brunei.

Cars were cheap; and petrol is cheaper than water (USD 0.40 / litre) It has been 53 Brunei cents since 1994 til today. Price of Crude oil must have exploded from US$30 a barrel to the US$120 levels today.

As a family struggling financially, going to Brunei was quite a dream. Dad, being a powerful teacher’s union leader prior to his appointment in Brunei, made a visit there during one of his meetings. Being told, and seeing first hand of the pot of gold in the land of milk and honey they call “the Abode of Peace”, he packed his bags and family of 4-5 people (brother never lived there, and two sisters “took turns” due to situational circumstances).

Come to think of it, the only time it was the full 6 of us in my family was only between 1986 to 1991 (when I was 5-6 years old). Brother went to Singapore for greener pastures and opportunities. Elder sister finished art and design college in Penang and joined us in Brunei later. Second sister finished 2 years ‘O’ level education before her further studies in K.L. Remember, this was all back in the mid-late 1990s. As for me, I stuck with both parents for quite a long while! I participated in the SEA Games 1999 opening ceremony, where my Form 1 education was virtually halted for this mega event the small country of 320,000 people (at that time). I was the bee in a dance and the good memories will forever be etched in my head.

In the area of friends, I was quite popular. Not because of my merits or appearance, but the fact was my dad was the Principal – easy target! There were a huge expectations for me; to score well, to behave well, and to be a role model. On the subject of scoring, I was once accused to have access to the school exam papers before the exam. The funny thing was, IT WAS TRUE! The papers were sitting in my dad’s office, but of course he knew I was a bad liar and didn’t bother leaking anything to me! No actually, it wasn’t my inability to lie, it was rather my inability to keep my mouth shut. I love sharing. I love creating excitement and inspiring others on my beliefs.

And funnily enough, that’s what I enjoy doing to this day – inspiring.

Immigrants are always a threat to the locals. Today, work 9 hours a day, about 20 days a month (total 180 hours) and still I am complaining. I know of security guards and toilet cleaners who come to Malaysia (in search of greener pastures) and work 12 hour shifts 30 days a month. No rest, low pay, poor living conditions. I think that is exploitation, but in this competitive world, having shelter, food and clothes is now a luxury for the few fortunate people who made it here.
Finally, I would like to muse about life and death. People spend all their effort and energy to live a comfortable life. Some go to great lengths on their diet; by not eating oily food, sinful Chinese delicacies (you know what I’m talking about!) and buying tonnes of Insurances to ensure their sustainability in this world.

My question is: Is it worth it?

A smoker and heavy drinker may live up to his late 70s or 80s before dying of liver cancer of other chronic illness. A perfect gentleman who inhales the second hand smoke and rarely drinks have a slight, mind you, very slight chance of living longer than the smoker, don’t you think? The government propaganda to incriminate the smokers seem feeble. On one hand they are receiving huge “sin tax” on cigarette purchases and on the other hand, slapping the smokers with guilt inducing foetus deformed babies and funky testes of cancer patients on the cigarette boxes.

Double standards. As painful and unjust as it seems, the bottom line in this: In Malaysia, the certain quarters have it all. They have it easy and the “pendatang” or visitors have to compete on separate playing fields for the same privileges. The irony is that, Indonesian neutralised “privilege groups” are rampant. Since the turn of the new millennium, immigation rules have been relaxed for pendatangs not only to enter the country but to be given “privileged group” treatment and status. Imagine the rage of the Chinese and “others” when this happens. Most of our grandparents live all our lives working the land, equally as hard or perhaps harder for it to be this successful. And in one populist move “vote hungry politicians”, it means nothing as our country “moves towards an era of gloablisation”. Pffft! It is all political.

In the end, our country suffers brain drain. The majority of the top 5% of the good gene pool leave the country to Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, UK and the USA where equal rights are given and their talents appreciated; as long as you can deliver the goods. The salaries abroad are mouth watering.

£ 3,000 a month (RM 15,000)
€ 4,000 a month (RM 15,000)
¥ whole-lotta-zeros a month
US$ 4,000 (RM 12,000)
A$ 3,500 (RM 11,000)

We at Malaysia? RM 2000 if you’re lucky. RM 3000 for a big company with experience RM 4000 and above only if you do sales, the pushy-rely-on-misinformation type of sales/schemes.

On a brighter note, here are the 5 things I am happy for in Malaysia and what’s keeping me here:
1. Family; being close to my family is very important.
2. Good food – Chinese, Indian, Western, anything I want – reasonably priced.
3. Reasonably free to worship / freedom of religion.
4. Good highways connecting big towns.
5. Good entertainment options – cinema, satellite TV

Would I leave the country? Stay tuned for the next installment.

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Wayne Rooney caught cheating during Coleen’s 5th month in pregnancy. Disgusted? I’m not. Ok, maybe for the sake of appearing less “inhumane”, I’d say it would be wrong. But as Penn Gillette (of Bullshit) pointed out, picking people out for their flaws will not only bite us in the future, but we ourselves will be the one appearing hypocritical in the end! He gave a hilarious example about Priests getting blowjobs, and how everyone is condemning the said priest for his action. But by doing so (condemning him), the people themselves are and would be judged even more harshly whenever they visit a brothel to get blowjobs. Same situation here. Why pick on people, just because they’re famous? Why be so judgmental?

Social Media privacy

You can’t escape the camera. Tell your boss you’re on leave, but go partying instead; eventually you’ll get busted.

Ever since digital cameras are on the loose, cheap and easily available, no one is safe. Not in the bathroom, not in your own house, not anywhere. Is it good? To me, transparency is good, right? That’s what we want in our government, to be accountable for all spendings and dealings and contract awards.

The same dude (Penn Gillette) pointed out that public cameras should be accessible to anyone who wishes to watch. So what if stalkers are looking at you on the street, or a freakish dude watches girls as they walk on her way home?! It should be our right to information.

We should have the right to see what is being filmed by the security cameras. As a bonus, more thieves and rapists can be caught this way, and the government don’t need to hire people to man the cameras. Everybody can watch in the public security cameras.

And that’s my rant for today!

And the Love Kickstarts Again!

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Whenever the bus slows down, the volume gets raised, and a seemingly high-paying advertiser gets his 30 seconds. This has happened several times, I noticed. It seems as though there is an Accelerometer installed on these kiosks. So whenever the thing detects that the bus is stopping (for passengers or traffic lights), the prime sponsor gets his time.

[LISTEN on MP3]

[WATCH on YOUTUBE]

It could be a weird coincidence. But if it isn’t then, I’ll patent this “idea” immediately! At the same time, data can be collected on the bus drivers driving-style. Essentially an accelerometer  is also known loosely as a G-Sensor. It has X, Y and Z coordinates to know it’s orientation

My first gadget encounter which had this, was the Canon Powershot camera long time ago. Flip it vertically and your image (review) gets displayed correctly. Amazing piece of technology. And I’m sure the guys at iSuppli who guesses how much the electronic components costs to the manufacturers; well, they’ll tell you it is only 30 American cents for the accelerometer module! And of course, we know that GPS costs only US$3,  for the 8 megapixel top-of-the-line camera US$7, for a mobile phone manufacturer to puchase. It’s marketing and differenciation at its best.

So my great idea is, put an Accelerometer on buses and even taxis, to see how the drivers are driving. Reward drivers with smooth readings. Perhaps write guidelines to how to drive efficiently, not so abruptly!

Let me tell you a short story about the Internet. (Now this story has been passed on from BBS -> IRC -> Forums -> Blogs -> Facebook generation to generation)

1. In the beginning was, a small society of electronics geeks who put together a simple online community, on really slow dialup modems. These people are enthusiasts in what they do. The online community back then was on a basis of sharing. We share what we know, we learn from others as they say it. People shared how to hack a Coke machine, shared software (shareware lah), shared general knowledge. Everything. Was. Great.

2. Then came the age of the Internet Explosion. Late 90s, a lot of companies fell into the trap of the Y2K bug (which NEVER happened). They upgraded computers to be compliant. And suddenly there was a huge budget for IT expenditure. Well, that in turn made costs of computers cheap enough to be affordable by many people. With this “internet thing”, more and more people got hooked into the information superhighway.

3. Everything seemed good for a while. Modem companies shipped the 56k modem and convinced you in funny ways why that is faster than 33.6k modems! If you put in today’s context, it is like streamyx offering new package, a 1.02 Mbit/s speeds vs their current 1 Mbit. Of course, last time it was text-and-graphics heavy while today’s bandwidth requirements are mostly for rich new multimedia. (haven’t heard the word “multimedia” for a while, media is the new buzzword!)

Then came the greedy multinationals and entrepreneurs. The greedy bastards whose sole purpose is to suck all your money by selling you air. Literally.

Look, if you’re a noodle seller, you buy your noodles and ingredients and rental for an average, say RM 2. And you charge me RM 3 for a bowl of noodles. I’d GLADLY pay you your premium. You earned it, you deserved it.

But the Internet economy is in such a way that, you can buy Fake Gold, Fake virtual points and money for online reputation improvements. That is just a rip off.

Then you might argue, well, how about Software developers? Microsoft Office took time and R&D budgets to design. The end product is, a DVD with the installer, (nowadays even downloadable versions) and you pay a hefty US$400 (depending on your country). Every extra copy of Office, minus development costs, is just like selling you air, right?

Meh, yeah, you’re right. Things change, the noodle seller won’t get uber rich by selling at a RM 1 profit. New gimmicks such as “franchises” really rips off the genuine people who GENUINELY deserve to be rich. The coffee shop concept has been there for centuries. But “Old Town” kopitiam, boy, that’s a whole new beast. You wanna franchise? That’s RM 1 million for a full setup. That’s insane – just to use the name / set up.

Oh, where was I… yeah, internet story.

What am I’m trying to point out is that, the INTERNET should be free. It was free when it first started. You just paid a minimal fee to get connected and that’s it. All the information and whatever you need is free.

Marketing people screw things up by trying to monetise stuff. They way they do it; like stealing your personal information for example, not a good thing. FAKE promises, also. This is an issue that really grinds my gears. Let’s say you are a developer of a game, and you say “Up to 50,000 active users”. I go ahead and pay, log on.. and find out that the claims were false. Now THAT is really dishonest. Your wordings may have protected your legal ass. You knowlingly mislead your clients and users. In my books, that is plain dishonest!

4. Good news is: the future internet will be a re-birth. We are going back to where we started. Twitter is about sharing. Youtube, Facebook is about sharing pictures, videos & links. If you DARE or even decide to charge your users, you will lose them, thousands of them will leave by the hour.

5. We have come to a point where the community is slowly giving back to one another on the internet. Not just leeching. Now this includes “pirated illegal stuff” where you tend to see more people seeding torrents now.

6. I guess the problems in the world has brought us nearer. Soon enough, we have a social support network online where all your needs are and can be met. FOR FREE.

Today, 14 May 2010 is our last cell group gathering as Fellowsheep United, SS2.

Last cell.

It’s quite a sad occation, to finally end this thing.. Because of something happening on Sunday…

Check this space.

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