Malaysia, Selamat Ulang Tahun Kemerdekaan Ke-53

August 31st, 2010 by [re-arrange] 5 comments »

*Tiba-tiba mood nak menulis dalam bahasa ibunda mencanak-canak seperti keadaan senjata lelaki yang menegang di waktu pagi. LOL* laughing

Malaysia, selamat ulang tahun kemerdekaan ke-53. Sudah 53 tahun kau ya? Kalau diikutkan pada skala umur manusia di Malaysia ni, kau dah layak untuk tengok-tengok akaun EPF atau akaun pencen kau. Dua tahun lagi kau dah boleh berhenti kerja dan berehat di rumah goyang kaki atau menyusahkan kembali anak-anak kau untuk menjaga kau yang sudah mula kerepot.

Sudah banyak perkembangan kau aku lihat dalam usiaku yang masih muda dan masih tak layak untuk menjadi pewaris kau. Setakat jadi cucu tu bolehlah kot! Adakah aku gembira? Mungkin. Tapi lebihnya aku cuma rasa tiada perasaan. Indifference kata kaum yang menjajah tanah kau sebelum kau dilahirkan. Kenapa? Sebab rakyat kau semakin teruk jadinya walaupun pembangunan kau boleh tahan hebat.

Sifat perkauman semakin berleluasa. Perwatakan “holier than thou” makin menjadi-jadi. Salah sebut sedikit boleh dibawa berperang. Sampaikan perbuatan yang tak salah pun disalahkan. Tengok sahajalah kes masuk masjid. Minion-minion kau bina masjid cantik-cantik, tapi apabila orang lain nak masuk pun tak boleh, gila ke apa? Kemudian siapa yang disalahkan? Agama jugakk. Agama jugak yang diperkotak-katikkan di sana sini.

Penat kadang-kadang menengokkan mereka-mereka yang tak semenggah ni. Yang apek Cinenya nak kerek konon merekalah punca kekayaan kau, yang Meleis nak kerek kononnya akulah tuan punya tanah. Semua nak dipolitikkan. Agaknya diorang ni tak pernah tengok cerita P. Ramlee kot, yang Seniman Bujang Lapuk tu? Kau ingat tak adegan Singh sound  Bujang Lapuk tu?

You punya nasi you makan, dia punya nasi dia makan, apa salah kasi makan sama-sama?

Ini nak makan manusia sesama manusia; ish kanibal sungguh!

Entahlah, aku nak cakap pasal politik, aku sendiri pun tak pandai. Mengundi pun belum pernah lagi walaupun dah masuk tahun ketiga aku sepatutnya mengundi. Nak mengundi apanya, yang sini salahkan yang sana, yang sana salahkan yang sini. Buat pening kepala otak aku je mendengar mereka-mereka tu membebel. Aku undi diorang pun bukan aku dapat duit makan bulan-bulan. Panas je kena beratur panjang-panjang.

Aku tak nafikan hidup dalam Malaysia ni menarik. Cukup makan, cukup pakai, cukup dapat pergi sekolah sampai dah dapat kerja pun. Setakat cukuplah. Nak mintak lebih-lebih takut kufur nikmat. Tapi bila tiap-tiap hari aku baca suratkhabar ke, tengok dekat Internet ke, penuh je lah hate message sana sini.  Balik-balik bergaduh. Balik-balik buang anak. Balik-balik kes bunuh-bunuh. Sampaikan artis kahwin ke bercerai pun boleh jadi bukak hate group kat Facebook, kau tahu?

Padahal artis tu jugak yang sedap dapat bersenggama nanti. Apalahh minion-minion kau ni…

Ah, malaslah aku nak membebel panjang-panjang. Aku rasa kau pun tahu apa yang jadik dalam isi perut kau. Cuma kau tak tahu jelah kan nak buat camne? Aku pun tak tau nak buat camne. Aku pun cuma boleh berharap jelah yang minion-minion kau tu nanti duduk, ambil cermin, dan fikir sendiri apa yang diorang dah buat untuk memantapkan lagi kondisi kau yang macam hidup pun nyawa-nyawa ikan. Jangan diorang ambil cermin, fikir dan memantatkan kau balik sudahlah. Bagilah aku gembira baca akhbar-akhbar menunjukkan yang kau makin maju dan makin best untuk diduduki. Bukannya baca berita-berita yang menambahkan tekanan. Depress jadiknya camtu dowh! sad

Selamat ulang tahun kemerdekaan yang ke 53, Malaysia.

Picture credit to Google Image

P/s: So you called this, your free country; tell me why it costs so much to live? – Three Doors Down, Duck and Run



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Idiot Guide To PageRank (PR)

August 30th, 2010 by [re-arrange] 4 comments »

Me and my other half was talking on the phone about blogs and bloggers when the issue of pagerank comes out. Me being techy and she being normal, of course the first question from her was: What is a pagerank?

Alamak.. *bertukar kepada tutor mode*

Definition and Explanation:

Pagerank is a ranking given by Google to all websites that is being indexed in Google. The more important a website is, then a higher ranking (out of 10)  will be given. E.g Facebook – the largest social networking websites that is being indexed in Google as #1 sites with the most users: have a pagerank (PR) of 10.

The exact way Google determined whether a page is important or not is unknown. It is believed that the algorithm calculated the pagerank based on 500 millions variable and 2 million terms and the algorithm changed over time – quote from Wikipedia.

So, since this is Google’s way of determining the importance of your page, usually PR is used to determine whether a site is a hoax, a scam, or not. That’s one of the use. Also, it gives an indication whether that sites (and it’s owner) is popular or not.

So, the simple way of understanding it is..

  1. The higher the pagerank, the easier Google put the page in it’s search engine result.
  2. The more search engine result given, the more users visiting the page.
  3. The way to increase your pagerank is to publish something useful for your keyword that you wanted to target, so that many links will share your sites and make it popular plus useful — maybe this is the easiest concept in increasing your pageranks.

Having said that, usually it is hard for a niche blog / personal blog to achieve more than 5 or 6 pageranks nowadays. It is hard but it is not impossible. Seth Godin blog has a PR7. Mine? I got 2. Obefiend’s and Redmummy got 3.

How to check my pagerank?

Two ways:

  1. Go to this web service that offers you to check the pagerank of any sites: http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php
  2. Install Google Toolbar and enable the Pagerank features. See video below.

Google has already put a short video explaining how to enable the pagerank feature from the Google Toolbar. Personally, I use this since it is integrated into Firefox directly:

So, was that helpful?



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Goodbye IBM, Oh y halo thar HP!

August 28th, 2010 by [re-arrange] 5 comments »

After three long years with IBM excluding the eight months period of internship with them, it’s time to move on for me. Yes, you read it right. I’ll be resigning from my position in IBM and joining HP in Cyberjaya, effective 27th September, 2010, albeit that HP being the business competitor to IBM laughing

While some responses I got is like I am the biggest betrayer to IBM (which is expected — you know, some of my teammates stop talking to me in this period of resignation), some of my friends was amazed at my ability to withstand IBM for so long. Some of them even asked me..

How come you can be so long with IBM?

Haha. I don’t have much answer for that actually. While some might think that 3 years is a short time, some do thinks that it is a very long time.  Depends on each individual perception, everyone will have a different answers. Oh well, let me try to answer some less trivial questions, shall we?:

Reason I’m leaving IBM for HP:

  1. I got to be based in Cyberjaya, which is much nearer to my current residence in Kajang now. No traffic jam, no tense before reaching the office I hope.
  2. I got to do DB2 for HP’s internal system, so I still will be doing what I do best — a DBA, a Server Administrator, and will be a DB Developer as well. Oh yeahh!! dancing
  3. HP offer me a bigger pay. 22% more pay from my current, revised salary; and same benefits as offer by IBM. Surely will help my financial condition.

Did IBM gave me a counter offer? NOPE. And if they did, most probably I won’t stay too due to the first reason (unless it was like 200% or 300% more pay which is of course, ridiculous). Do you know that I have to travel 40km one-way to come to office? Even in the no-traffic-jam road condition, it will still take me one hour to reach office or vice versa.

Multiply the one hour with *at least* two; and that is the average time that I need to be stucked in traffic jam normally when coming or going back to the office. It just  not making sense any more to me – financially and timely. And the cost to rent a place nearer to the office also is quite high.

It has been three years and sadly, I do not have any savings that can be liquidated easily (read: cash savings) while with IBM. It all went back some way or the other to IBM. Maybe I can quote Petronas most popular saying:

Energy received, energy returned.

It just… not returning to me in terms of monetary value. laughing

So, with this movement to HP, at least I have fulfilled one of my 2010 resolutions (#3) with an over-achievement. I hope this would ease the resolution #1. Hehehe. Sayang, are you ready? winking

(Reading back the 2010 resolutions post, I gotta *pfft* myself. I haven’t started on #4, #5 most prolly won’t get done, and #6 is slowly failing… sad)

Would you recommend people to work at IBM?

Of course I do. It’s a good place to learn, grow, and equip yourself with a lot of knowledge. But as the saying goes, there’s no workplace that is totally heaven. It still have some perks here and there. Here’s what you need to expect:

  • Don’t expect people there to spoonfeed you anything. If you want to grow, you got to take your own initiatives. Self-learn, getting technical certificates, and offering to start an initiative or whatnot. That’s the way to success in IBM. Of course, your manager can be your mentor / guidance, but that’s about it.
  • Working hard and working late is expected. There will be time when an extra effort is needed to meet your goals or personal business commitment (PBC – something like KPI for IBM). People calls you when you’re just about to pack your bags? Normal.
  • Equip yourself with communication skills and people skills. That is the most vital tools for you. If you need to meet 100 peoples around your work, you will find 100 different attitudes. Bonus tips: Equip yourself with body languages skills too. People tend to say accordingly but act differently. Things like “taichee” their tasks, recognition steal, defensive stances, “cover my own ass” attitude is normal. It’s a jungle there. HAHA tongue
  • Don’t expect the environment to be happening. Most of the time, most team or department will have the dark, bleak, quiet and boring environment. I kid you not. The most noise that you can hear is the keyboard typing or people calling others in phones. At least this is true to all departments I’ve been in these three years. Bring an earphone and a MP3 player, that will help a lot. tongue

Okay, that’s the expectation. What about things that you can learn?

  • Business process. You’ll find that IBM matrix structure is quite clean (even though at times the roles or responsibilities are not). I got to say that their business process is very effective, albeit at times can be quite slow. If you plan to setup your business later, IBM is a good place to learn it’s perks. You will learn to have a business mindset too.
  • Vast technical knowledge. IBM has many portals that you can learn all kind of stuffs you want. Take a look at IBM Redbooks for example. You can download one Redbooks, download the installer, and do your own hands-on. Believe me, that’s the best way to learn technical stuffs. While not all portals are equal (sometimes there’s also stuffs that is not available), it’s a good place to get as much knowledge as you can absorb. In the end, you can get a chance to take professional certifications too.
  • Globalization. Since IBM is a very big company with a lot of branches all around the world, you will have a chance to work with a lot of people, each with different speciality and comes from different background. You will work with people from US, China, India, Australia.. just to name a few. If you have a solid communication skills, even a base foundational skills; that will helps and you will find that your communication skills grow a lot.

Well, that’s all I have to say about this. Wish me luck in my new career praying , and may some day our lives cross again for the betterment of the world. (Haha, that’s such a wishful thinking) laughing

P/s: Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future – John F. Kennedy



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