Prince's Blog

Enter The Dragon

noreply@blogger.com (Prince) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 16:57:00 +0000

The Chinese zodiac sign for 2012 is the dragon. The dragon resembles a powerful creature, capable of being dominant and ambitious. Dragons prefer to live by their own rules and if left alone, are usually successful.

Here are a few links which describe the nature of the chinese zodiac

Chinese Zodiac of Dragon

New Year Speech

noreply@blogger.com (Prince) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:51:00 +0000

2012 has just begun. The new year brings new challenges, new aspirations, new motivation and desire to achieve greater heights. 2011 left us with memories, lessons to learn from and some events that will go down in history.

The dawn of 2012 is on the horizon and the dusk of 2011 has set. This leads us once again into a year of great expectation and new resolutions to be achieved. There will be success stories and failures to learn from the past, decisions to be made and many more milestones to be met.

The future has become the present, and the present will soon become the past. The only thing that we must know is to learn from the past, to live in the present and to envision the future. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. A step that we all must take with humility, confidence, and lessons learnt from mistakes in the past. The future is not the past, and the past will never be the future if we learn from our failures that should never be repeated.

Achievements, goals, desires and visions to be relalized in the seamingly near future should be atempted with courage, deligence, and the right effort for it to be reality. Nothing is impossible, if we believe in ourselves and have full faith that the things we do is for the betterment of our families, society and ourselves.

Change is inevitable. We should learn to adopt to new circumstances and be flexible whenever we can to be at the frontier of change. Change with proper reason and criticism is important for us to move in the direction that would bring us to greater heights. Change without reason would only destroy us and bring further frustration, therefore it is important to have a clear vision and make changes that would stear us closer to our goals.

Angry Birds Free Download

noreply@blogger.com (Prince) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 17:56:00 +0000

Go to this link to download your demo for angry birds.

Angry Birds Download

Google Doodle

noreply@blogger.com (Prince) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 16:53:00 +0000

Google showing a little bit of creativity with google doodle.

9 Things That Motivate Employees More Than Money

noreply@blogger.com (Prince) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 04:07:00 +0000

The ability to motivate employees is one of the greatest skills an entrepreneur can possess.

Be generous with praise. Everyone wants it and it’s one of the easiest things to give. Plus, praise from the CEO goes a lot farther than you might think. Praise every improvement that you see your team members make. Once you’re comfortable delivering praise one-on-one to an employee, try praising them in front of others.
Get rid of the managers. Projects without project managers? That doesn’t seem right! Try it. Removing the project lead or supervisor and empowering your staff to work together as a team rather then everyone reporting to one individual can do wonders. Think about it. What’s worse than letting your supervisor down? Letting your team down! Allowing people to work together as a team, on an equal level with their co-workers, will often produce better projects faster. People will come in early, stay late, and devote more of their energy to solving problems.
Make your ideas theirs. People hate being told what to do. Instead of telling people what you want done; ask them in a way that will make them feel like they came up with the idea. “I’d like you to do it this way” turns into “Do you think it’s a good idea if we do it this way?”
Never criticize or correct. No one, and I mean no one, wants to hear that they did something wrong. If you’re looking for a de-motivator, this is it. Try an indirect approach to get people to improve, learn from their mistakes, and fix them. Ask, “Was that the best way to approach the problem? Why not? Have any ideas on what you could have done differently?” Then you’re having a conversation and talking through solutions, not pointing a finger.
Make everyone a leader. Highlight your top performers’ strengths and let them know that because of their excellence, you want them to be the example for others. You’ll set the bar high and they’ll be motivated to live up to their reputation as a leader.
Take an employee to lunch once a week. Surprise them. Don’t make an announcement that you’re establishing a new policy. Literally walk up to one of your employees, and invite them to lunch with you. It’s an easy way to remind them that you notice and appreciate their work.
Give recognition and small rewards. These two things come in many forms: Give a shout out to someone in a company meeting for what she has accomplished. Run contests or internal games and keep track of the results on a whiteboard that everyone can see. Tangible awards that don’t break the bank can work too. Try things like dinner, trophies, spa services, and plaques.
Throw company parties. Doing things as a group can go a long way. Have a company picnic. Organize birthday parties. Hold a happy hour. Don’t just wait until the holidays to do a company activity; organize events throughout the year to remind your staff that you’re all in it together.
Share the rewards—and the pain. When your company does well, celebrate. This is the best time to let everyone know that you’re thankful for their hard work. Go out of your way to show how far you will go when people help your company succeed. If there are disappointments, share those too. If you expect high performance, your team deserves to know where the company stands. Be honest and transparent.

Investing in Iskandar Malaysia?

noreply@blogger.com (Prince) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 03:03:00 +0000

Iskandar Malaysia showing total of investments exceeding RM73 billion (US24.42 billion) . Below are some of the important links which show the blueprint development plan for Iskandar Malaysia.

Iskandar Malaysia Overall Development Plan Map
Iskandar Malaysia Overall Development Plan
Iskandar Malaysia Comprehensive Development Plan
Iskandar Malaysia Brochures

Revised Taxi Fares by Singapore's ComfortDelGro

noreply@blogger.com (Prince) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:39:00 +0000

The revised taxi fare structure took effect on 12 December 2011 at 6am for all ComfortDelGro taxis.

Flag down fares increased by 20 cents.
Distance fares increased by 2 cents.
Advance booking fees increased by 8 dollars.
Surcharge of 3 dollars which is currently in effect between 5pm to midnight on Mondays to Saturdays will be extended to Sundays and Public Holidays.
Booking fees reduced from $3.50 during peak periods and $2.50 during other times to $3.30 during peak periods and 2.30 at all other times.

The previous revision was made in December 2007. ComfortDelGro operates around 15,600 taxis of the 26,700 taxis in Singapore.

Ref: http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_741449.html

Tips to become a better Manager

noreply@blogger.com (Prince) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:06:00 +0000

Tips for developing your management skills

#1: Read the One Minute Manager series of books by Ken Blanchard. A one-minute manager is someone who gets good results without taking much time, according to Blanchard. Apply his three easy steps to management and situational leadership.
#2: Learn the internal politics of your organization, and network with peer and upper managers. Ask their advice. Managers usually like to help other managers.
#3: Find and understand your own weaknesses as soon as possible. Remember, you're allowed to take training, too, so make sure you do.
#4: Learn to manage an IT budget down to the last penny and clearly show the business where money can be saved.

Tips to improve your communication with executive staff

#5: Don't take day-to-day problems to your boss. Instead, take recurring issues and optional solutions to the problem. Then, ask which approach your boss would recommend.
#6: If you do project work as well as support work, try to keep the two separate. It's a lot easier to justify bringing in extra staff members for a new project, as long as their salaries are included in the cost of implementing the project. Don't allow your staff to be pulled in both directions.
#7: Record and report everything. Require your team to fill out timesheets so you can factually show where resource time is spent. This will aid in any arguments for extra resources and will keep you current on what the team is doing. It will also make writing your monthly reports to executive staff members easier.
#8: In the event of a disaster, remember that your team's job is to get the systems back in place. Ensure you have good disaster and recovery plans for mission-critical systems and leave the business recovery to others.

Tips for motivating your team, negotiating politics

#9: If you have no formal help desk protocol and find that you're getting swamped with help calls, create a centralized help desk. Outsource this function if necessary. If you go this route, you should create service level agreements (SLAs) that outline your complete services.
#10: Invest your time in enabling your staff to succeed and fend off any counterproductive requests from other departments as much as possible.
#11: Learn Monkey Management: When employees come looking for help, be sure to send them away with the next action. Don't take on your employees' workload, because you'll have enough to do.
#12: Perform staff appraisals at least once or twice a year. Provide staff members with clear objectives and then help them reach their goals.
#13: Hold regular team meetings. This is difficult because of constant deadlines and because everyone always seems too busy. If absolutely necessary, have lunch meetings, but be sure to provide the sandwiches.
#14: Treat your team to a meal out at least once per quarter. If you control the budget, you can manage the cost.
#15: Recognize that the sum capability of your staff is your team's maximum output. Just because you have high standards, don't expect your team members to hold the same values. Praise and encourage them in their areas of strength and provide good training for their areas of weakness.

Apple TV - The Next Generation of Television

noreply@blogger.com (Prince) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 16:15:00 +0000

3D Television is becoming amazingly popular these days, with more TV manufacturers producing 3D television display, which some even come with a home theatre system or surround sound to give the 3D sound effect.

Television manufacturers such as Samsung, Phillips, Panasonic, LG are betting that the future of television would go in the 3D direction. Apple TV is betting that the next generation of television would be streaming television from the internet.

Well, when you combine both, you get streaming 3D TV direct from the internet. What an invention! What else could they come up with next? Hologram TV? TV that would give touch, smell, taste ? or TV that could talk and answer your questions ?

Cornelia Marie Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Prince) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 16:45:00 +0000

Indian Premier, Mr. Manmohan Singh visits Singapore

noreply@blogger.com (Prince) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 18:52:00 +0000

Manmohan Singh, India's premier visited Singapore on Sunday, 19th November 2011. He was in Singapore for a two day official visit. The agenda was to deepen bilateral ties and relationship between the two countries.

Also on the agenda was to increase collaboration between the two countries particularly in the fields of vocational education and skills training as well as urban development.

Greeted by Singapore's premier, Mr Lee Hsien Loong, Mr Manmohan Singh was given a warm welcome in Singapore who was here for a two day official visit.

Iphone 5 features

noreply@blogger.com (Prince) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 18:28:00 +0000

There are many features that are probably being targeted by the next generation of iphones. There's a lot of rumours that try to guess the features that might be included by Apple in iphone 5. Well, here are a list of features that would probably make the iphone 5 interesting and worth purchasing:

1) Voice Recognition for texting messages (SMS)
2) Speech to text ability
3) Text to speech ability - natural speech and synthetic speech.
4) Self locator - locate its ownself if it were missing and let the owner know its exact position by email or calling the owner on a land line if it were misplaced or stolen.
5) Speach navigation - for menus and applications for blind / disabled people
6) Brail sensors / brail touch sensors that show brail texture on the screen or special pads.
7) Inbuilt signer ( showing sign language translation)
8) Language translator (speech based)
9) Image reader ( Voice reader that could recognize characters from an image and translate to speech)

Cornelia Marie

noreply@blogger.com (Prince) — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 15:31:00 +0000

The captain and owner of Cornelia Marie, Captain Phil Haris started his sea adventures at a tiny age of seven. In 1990, Captain Phil bought a vessel known as Cornelia Marie. Then went on to star in the show "Deadliest Catch" which showed the world, what Alaskan King Crab fishing was all about.

Rough seas, long straineous nights, greuling weather, hurricanes, waves the hight of seven storey buildings, the cold icey nature of the Bearing Sea, and many more obstacles were faced each king crab fishing season, to earn a living and bring back the haul of king crabs from the Bearing Sea. These documentaries were shown on the Discovery Channel every season.

Togather with other fishing vessels, the cornelia marie roamed the Bearing
Sea, with great courage, hardwork, and toil, to bring back the catch before each season ended. Among Cornelia Marie's competitors were the Northwestern, with Captain Sig Hansen as the captain in charge, Jonathan Hillstrand of the Time Bandit.

The rough nature of the Bearing Sea, togather with the competition to get the biggest haul or even sometimes just to break even before the king crab fishing season was over encouraged the determined crew to pull their strengths, knowledge, expertise togather and sometimes discover weaknesses and increased tollerance of behaviors that may seem unusual to the normal day job in the city.

SEA Games 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Prince) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 19:14:00 +0000

Indonesia SEA Games 2011 will be held in 11 days from November 11, 2011 - November 22, 2011 in two host cities, Palembang and Jakarta with 542 gold medals to be competed through 44 sports. There would be 11 participating countries for the 2011 South East Asian Games. Togather these countries would compete in the South East Asian Games 2011 with the spirit of sports, unity and upholding their unique cultural differences in the South East Asian region.

The 2011 SEA Games in Palembang and Jakarta would be the 26th SEA Games held. The official medal tally for the 2011 SEA Games could be found by clicking on this link. The official SEA Games 2011 medal tally is subject to the organiser's descretion and is subject to change, should there be any disqualification. The 2011 SEA Games live results are updated as the events progress.

The tentative schedule for the 2011 SEA Games can be found here. The SEA Games 2011 schedule may be updated from time to time should there be any amendments. The 2011 SEA Games schedule would last for eleven days until 22nd November 2011. The official logo for the 2011 SEA Games is shown above.

The countries that are participating in the SEA Games 2011 are listed below:

Brunei Darussalam (BRU)
Cambodia (CAM)
Indonesia (INA)
Laos (LAO)
Malaysia (MAS)
Myanmar (MYA)
Phillipines (PHI)
Singapore (SIN)
Thailand (THA)
Timor-Leste (TLS)
Vietnam (VIE)

The 2011 SEA Games Mascot is as below.

Pink Coach is it a solution or a problem?

noreply@blogger.com (Prince) — Wed, 05 May 2010 06:32:00 +0000

Is the "Pink Coach" a solution or just another problem?

Male and disabled as well as elderly have to run from one end of the train to the other end when one of the "non- Pink Coach" is filled like a tin of sardine.
The middle coach is under utilized and much space is wasted.
Not all female passengers are taking the " Pink Coach"
Trains still are not punctual and do not arrive according to scheduled time.
The passengers pay equal amount of transport service fee, yet are getting different for their money's worth.
The first and last coaches packed to the brim cause security concerns during accelration and break-ing of the komuter
The frequency of trains are no match for the amount of passengers that pack the trains.
Why can't the "Pink Coach" just be an extra coach to the existing 3 coach train?

Proposed solution:

Add more coaches to existing trains
Add more trains and increase the frequency of trains
Have special coaches for the disabled and elderly
Have alternating stops for trains (Train A stops at stations 1,3,5,7,9 and Train B stops at stations 2,4,6,8,10)
Review the rate of frequent commuters by having special discounts during non-peak seasons to encourage public transport as well as adding funds to buy new trains.

I agree with the opinion from writer MONG YOON WENG from Seremban published on May 4, 2010

Dilbert

noreply@blogger.com (Prince) — Wed, 05 May 2010 01:46:00 +0000

European Economic Crisis

noreply@blogger.com (Prince) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 03:59:00 +0000

The passing away of Polish President (in a plane crash)
The eruption of Volcano Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland
The unregulated spending of British parliment members
The costly spending for Iraq war to "unmask" WMD, identified by inaccurate intelligence
The devaluation of the most traded currency in the world, Euro
Greece's economic situation
High debt ratios
Public pickets and demonstrations

There seems to be no end to the seamingly incremental economic crisis that is being unfolded day by day. Europe needs time to settle its internal issues, and undergo a internal "check up" to detect failure in policies and procedures that contribute towards the worsening situation of the economic crisis.

Deadliest Catch

noreply@blogger.com (Prince) — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 02:44:00 +0000

One of my favourite TV shows is to see Alaskan King Crab fishing, The TV show "Deadliest Catch" shows us the hardships, difficulties and danger that crab fisherman have to go thru to catch a bunch of crabs and bring them back to bay. Its interesting to know how far one is willing to go and risk just to bring home the catch!

Uncle Ron on Youtube - Asians of The Year

noreply@blogger.com (Prince) — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 21:17:00 +0000

Negeri vs Kedah FA Cup

noreply@blogger.com (Prince) — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 20:36:00 +0000

Score:

1-1 (Extra Time)

5-4 (Penalties) (NS won)

Tim Urban - All My Loving on American Idol 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Prince) — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 20:01:00 +0000

I really think Tim Urban did a really good version of the Beatle's All My Loving on American Idol 2010.

Here's Tim Urban's All My Loving

Here's the original Beatles version

Using in SQL Joins

noreply@blogger.com (Prince) — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 04:32:00 +0000

"USING" in SQL Joins:

If you have many columns that have the same names in the tables you are joining and those columns do not have the same datatype, or you want to specify the columns should be considered for an equijoin, you can use the JOIN … USING syntax. The USING clause specifies the column names that should be used to join the tables. The column names should not be qualified with a table name or table alias.

Example:

SELECT location_id, city, department_name
from locations
JOIN departments USING (location_id);

Other example:

select a.col1, b.col2
from a
inner join b on a.col3 = b.col3

can be written as

select a.col1, b.col2
from a
inner join b using(col3)

World Cup 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Prince) — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 09:57:00 +0000

Above is the groups for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Any predictions on who will win the world cup?

Transforming Malaysia Into a High Income Nation

noreply@blogger.com (Prince) — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 15:20:00 +0000

The task that Malaysian leadership needs to go thru to transform the nation into a high income nation is not as easy as it sounds. The road ahead remains challenging for all industries:

1) Eradicating hardcore poverty
2) Home ministry have to decide whether to allow more skilled foreign workers in the country to enable the country to undertake high value R&D projects
3) Foreign ministry has to work hard in establishing good relationship with neighbouring countries and also countries targeted for exports.
4) Industries have to move from high volume yield to high quality yield (minimal defects) in a short timespan
5) Brain Drain has to be minimized and local brains that are overseas have to be recalled back to move the country foward
6) Political, social and economic stability has to be maintained.
7) Foreign Direct Investment has to be stepped up.
8) Good infrastructure has to be made available and maintained properly (e.g High Speed Broadband, KTM service, efficient shipping ports, good roads & highways)

It is truly easier said than done. However, should these tasks be undertaken with great perseverance, tenecity and diligence, we would be moving one step closer towards making the country a better place to live.

Recalling Cars & The Malaysian Law

noreply@blogger.com (Prince) — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 12:51:00 +0000

The Malaysian law does not have any provision for car manufacturers to recall cars, should they find any defective parts that may cause fatal accidents. We have never required car manufacturers to recall cars that are defective, in the history of the car industry in Malaysia. This part of the Malaysian law should seriously be reviewed by the government. If left unchecked, it can cause car manufacturers to gain profit at the expense of the drivers and passengers out there. Yes, there is also car insurance and life insurance to fall back on, but the situation should not benefit the car manufacturers at the expense of ordinary citizens, and other financial institutions in the country. As it is currently, ordinary citizens have become the guinea pigs of the car manufacturing industry.

On the other hand, I understand that recalling cars that are sold in the local industry could disrupt profit margins and even cause certain car manufacturers to fold their business. There is a chance that our national car maker may further go into losses, should this kind of law be reviewed. I beg to defer from this opinion. My opinion is that a car of high quality standards would not only save lives in the short run, but prove a worthy business proposition for the long run.

Finally, I think that there must be some check and balance between the two opinions. We would just be shooting ourselves in our own feet, if this part of the Malaysian law is left unchecked and not reviewed throughly by a professional, reliable, independant body.