One Bribe At A Time

Shaffi Mather explains why he left his first career to become a social entrepreneur, providing life-saving transportation with his company 1298 for Ambulance. Now, he has a new idea and plans to begin a company to fight the booming business of corruption in public service, eliminating it one bribe at a time.

Courtesy of TED.com (http://www.ted.com/talks/shaffi_mather_a_new_way_to_fight_corruption.html)

Why Potong?

After doing the Speedtest as below, you can't stop to wonder why to potong when Streamyx is the only ISP which offers the fastest broadband (sadly the case) among all the other players in the market.

Alternatively, I am using Digi wireless broadband for outdoor as I am always traveling around. It is convenient that now, choosing a working venue with Wifi may not be a must anymore. Saves me from the premium which I have to pay to experience Wifi with food and drinks.

During one of visit to the PC fair, someone told me that despite all the potong and tukar pitches, people still go back to Streamyx which I can't deny any further. Our dearly beloved country simply lack of the infrastructure for better broadband.

However, despite of that, it makes Streamyx less of a bully due to many options to be chosen by consumers on their competitors. Afterall, for me, I don't mind going to an ISP which gives excellent customer service if it also means I have to settle for slower broadband. I don't do frequent downloads.

So, there you go. Your choice still. :)

Cheers.

Amateur Playing with Photo Effects

Just came across a photo-effect editing website called BeFunky (http://www.befunky.com/). Decided to try it as the functions are quite simple to use and really user-friendly. Suitable for graphic-idiots like myself.

You can basically select the source of graphic files from various options listed below:

Subsequently, you can choose what kind of effects which you would like to do onto your original graphic file.

Example of what I have done onto my photo. I have chosen the option for "Sunburst" and under the effect category, there are 6 more options to choose from. Interesting!

The outcome: The photo can be quite freaky to look at!

Try it out and have fun! :)

Cheers.

Immigration Outing

It's the time of the year to travel to Singapore again in December and for Christmas, nevertheless (Orchard Rd, here I come again!). This year, yours truly's passport has expired and must be renewed. How was I to know, I had chosen the wrong time to do that. Seems like everyone is traveling out of the country this year. How do I know that? Look at the queue in the immigration office in Wangsa Maju which took 2 hours to collect the queue number.

Reached the immigration office at 8.45am and I had to go all the way to the back lane of the office building to start queuing. Only got to reach the counter at approximately 11am which I thought was madness. Another few more hours to wait for my turn to submit my passport renewal form. Indeed, as my number was 1369 and the last called number was 1160. 209 people to go before it would reach me.

The hours just passed by reading a book and walking in and out the office. Then, at 1.50pm, I decided to leave the place for lunch, opposite the office in a restaurant which serves spaghetti and other Italian variety. That's where I got connected to the internet via Wifi provided and by then, the last number called before I left was 1260+. Presumed my number will be called in at least an hour time as the speed was almost as slow as a person per minute. However, there were couple of times when I left the notebook at the restaurant and walked over to the office just to check on how far the called number was to the number I was holding. (Again, it was 1369. 4D anyone? :P)

Picture above was taken at approximately 2.45pm after lunch. There were still many people around and some of them (who were not in the picture) had been standing for hours!

I was back to the immigration office by 2.45pm and it was still 1350+. Reckoned it was about my time. Subsequently, by the time I submitted my form the clock was touching 3.10pm. Then, the officer told me that I have to wait for my number to be called again for payment. Another 30 minutes to go?! Nevertheless, yours truly was really in patience mode throughout the day, so wait it was!

By the time I was done with the payment, it was really about 3.45pm.

Returned the next day to collect the passport and in less than 5 minutes, I got hold of yours truly renewed passport already! Most importantly, it was collected with smiling face from the officer. It made my day indeed.

So my advice is.... do not renew your passport at the end of the year!

P.s.: After the renewal, I found out that it's better to choose the option of renewing the passport for 5 years at RM300.00! Share with you more, only per request.

Cheers.

When Mobbing Becomes Green

When Catherine mentioned one fine day that she wanted to organise a rally ala FlashMob to McDonald's, I thought that was a mad, mad idea and I immediately fell for it. It is probably the best thing we can ever do to raise Malaysians' awareness towards the importance of using eco-friendly products and materials to reduce carbon emission.

Full details of the rally is as follows, courtesy of Catherine's Rebeliciousz:

Purpose

1 Creating awareness of the use of less eco-friendly materials used in McDonald during serving.

Goal

1 Capturing the reactions of everyone (especially the waiter and waitress) in the McDonald outlet during the act.

Methodology


Event Flow


1 Partcipants gathered at entrance of KL sentral for briefing at 8.00pm. 2 At 9.00pm, all proceeds to McDonald. 3 at 9.30pm, 10 orders are made at one time along with "special" demand.



Details

1 Video is taken all the way from the briefing session to the end with reactions of the waiter and waitress and those of the customers in the shop.2 Eg, "Can I have my Cheese burger on my plate?"

Resources needed


1 2 Video cams (1 to capture the waiter and waitress, 1 of the customers and crowd) 2 Editing of video

I hope you will be there to support us and join us in this rally. E-mail to myGreenomy@gmail.com with your name, contact number and e-mail address. Subsequently, we will contact you to

Should you agree to be part of GreenMob, you will be responsible for your own safety and well-being. The organiser will not be held liable for any loss, injuries, or damages caused as a result of negligence act by any party or act of God throughout the trip/rally.

How Twitter Decided on 140 Characters!

Courtesy of TheNextWeb.com - Unveiled: why Twitter decided on 140 characters!
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Show Me What's In the Bikini!

Have you ever wondered that what would I sell if I have ever given away my products or things that I sell for FREE?

Honestly, when I just started the company, I was constantly looking for sales. Quite aggressively too. My objective was to ensure each and every trip I made to the prospect was ended up with sales on each and every product I have in my inventory. However, with each prospect I visited and pitched to, they never buy. Instead, Malaysians being Malaysians, they are constantly looking for free stuff.

And it's not such a bad thing at all.

I recently came across someone sharing about the bikini concept. If I am to ask you to put a percentage figure on how much flesh you can see in a lady in bikini, how much would it be? 90%? Right! And I realise business is just like that! We have to keep in mind that we should be ready to give away 90% of our stuff for FREE. Subsequently, people would be ready to pay for another 10% which may be the most "attractive" part of the..ehem..in this case business. And yes, everyone wants to see the part where the bikini doesn't reveal, and this is where the big money comes in. Forget about the small money at the beginning!

So, the mentality of the Malaysian customers are not that difficult to deal with anyway.

I hope this will stuck into your mind for the rest of your life. And this is such an interesting and easy concept to remember, isn't it? :D

Signing off.

Youth Power

The Gen-Y should not be ignored further. The significance of youths today as a prominent driver to the nation's economical and political development is not a myth anymore or something we talk about in daily 'mamak' sessions.

Why did I say that? Look at the government's effort to engage youths via social media like Facebook. Firstly, there was a period of time when there was this posting about "Facebook Hour" by some prominent deputy minister. He was none other than the Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah (click here to link to his FB account and here to one of his initiatives done via FB).

Secondly, found out that the minister and the deputy ministers of Ministry of Youths and Sports are actively seeking members to be friends of their Facebook account. The difference between the first encounter and the second is the former maintains the account by himself while the latter's accounts are maintained by their secretaries or they call them, "setiausaha sulit" - whatever it means. Now vast difference is observed. Next question is that if they are not sincere in dealing with the youths, and creating an FB account just because it is one of the way to engage them which eventually managed by someone else, why bother?

Facebook campaign by the Ministry of Youth & Sports

The power of youths and particularly, the Gen-Y is a force to be reckoned with. Some people just have to understand that doing what the youths are doing do not make them blend well with the youths. Business wise, it is definitely a growing market and given an economic point of view - it is a generation which grow up with much spending power and willingness to spend. The closest factor I can look at is that our bunch of people grew up watching advertisements and internet, which are sources of marketers' main communications channel to create a lifestyle which money can buy. So to look good, buy the slimming or body make-over package! To be admired and awed, buy the Gucci bag!

One more example - look at the clubs around the city today compared to 20 years back. It does explain about the great opportunity in accommodating to the lifestyle of the young. A couple of my friends spend easily RM150-300 every night, every week at the club. And they do not just hang out on the much anticipated Friday night!

Have you seen other government and non-government organisations with similar initiatives to engage youths? Share with me.