I am reducing E-waste, are you?

Read this article here on EcoGeek.


Apparently using Linux can help reduce E-Waste.

How?

According to the article:

"A typical hardware refresh period for Microsoft Windows is 3-4 years. A major UK manufacturing organisation quotes its hardware refresh period for Linux systems as 6-8 years." A significant difference...a doubling even, of the lifetime of a computer.

That's doubling the lifetime of a computer. A possible explanation based on my experience using Linux desktop is that a user normally changes computer when there's a significant release of an operating system. For example:

• Windows XP ----> Windows Vista
• Mac OS X 10 ----> Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)

The "problem" which is not really a problem for Linux desktop is that the upgrades come in flashes. 5 months ago when I first started using SuSE it was version 10.1, 2 months after that 10.2 was released as a stable version with 10.3 being offered as a preview currently.Phew, that was tiring. Basically you have to keep updating that you won't even have time to think whether your computer is good enough for a particular version. Let's face it, with Vista, we all know that the recommended configuration is 2Gb of RAM with a powerful graphics card etc(a requirement which I failed miserably).




Now questions for all of you to ask yourself:

How long do you normally use a computer before you change it? Is it about time you consider changing your computer because Vista is finally out? If you're thinking like that then.........



You're creating more dumps and people from poor regions will suffer.


Solutions? I have 3 suggestions, take a pick on your favourite one and implement it.

• Change your computer only when it is near the end of its life, meaning you can't even start it.
  
• Dump Microsoft Windows and embrace Linux.
• Donate to a fund teaching people form poor regions how to use Linux.

Why teach them how to use Linux? Introducing Slackware, the Linux that runs on systems satisfying these requirements:

• 486 processor
• 16MB RAM (32MB suggested)
• 100-500 megabytes of hard disk space for a minimal and around 3.5GB for full install
• 3.5" floppy drive

So which is your choice? Choose wisely, it's for making the world a better place.

En route to First World?

Are we really en route to becoming a first world country?

I came across this small little poll on the FT website:
Dei Tan Sri Lim Ah Lek, Chairman of KTM Berhad:

Even the English think that their railway system run worse than those in Europe. By my observations, it's already quite sophisticated already, I can't get to anywhere I want on rail.

Best of all, it's all double-tracked. For the single-tracked part of Malaysia, we still have long way to go man. How can we even play catch up when the first world is progressing at a faster pace than us?

Human Capital is key

When I was in Form 5 preparing for my SPM examinations, I couldn't distinguish between a degree and a diploma. I'll be frank, I had no idea what I was going to do after secondary school and it came as a shock to me that I am about to step into an unknown world. Forgive me, I am from a little "city" called Alor Star(a city that is not a city) and I was not alone in realising the existence of an unknown world.

Don't get me wrong, the school did a lot to tell us about the options we had at that time. There were many educational fairs organised, whether by the school or some private organisations. I remember that I was at this careers talk when the speaker pop the question to me(I was sitting in the front) asking what do I aspire to become. My answer at that time was

CEO of a multinational corporation

I swear that he looked half shocked half amused. What an answer by a student, and to be honest I wasn't even thinking straight. I had just learnt the word CEO less than a day before the fair and there I was talking like I already have big ambitions. I want to be a successful businessman like my dad and my uncles, talk about influence on my youth, sheesh.



If you ask me the same question now, my answer would be no different that that time. The only difference is that I have a clear mindset of what I want to do. Why CEO? Power of course, who doesn't love power, and me being a control freak. Why multinational? Secretly I told myself that my ambition is to take a small local company and transform it into a multinational corporation, that is a show of success. Too much of a fairytale? It is possible and I adhere to this believe.

To realise this ambition, I have to equip myself with all the relevant knowledge. A degree is a key, a qualification as an actuary is a tool, a determined mindset and an acute business sense are requirements. Throughout the years, I've met a lot of different people and I certainly would love to meet more, much much more. I love to listen to what these people have to say, how they go about analysing a particular situation, how they handle the challenges and how they view life. Along with all these, I've also accumulated a few views that I think that I would adhere to one day as a businessman.

One of this views is on human capital.

I came across this article on Bernama. I quote Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop as saying:

has called on the private sector to give attention to the development of its human capital, describing it as a critical component in the country's development. [Source: Bernama]

I do in fact agree with him that human capital is vital to thedevelopment of the country. This is even more so for industries where human capital is the asset of the company such as consultancies, banks, creative industries, advertising etc compared to say manufacturing. Everybody knows this and so this is not a vital issue that we have to note.

An addendum to the above is a very crucial point I would like to stress --- human capital management. A business's success depends on how well the leader managers his employees, whether he can extract the full potential of his employees and how much loyalty he can garner from those who had shown full potential. It is also important that the employees get rewarded appropriately and given enough benefits. This is a move that doesn't only increase productivity, it also helps in bridging the poverty gap said to be widening in our country.

Another form of rewarding employee is to send them for re-education. Of course there are worries that these employees might be poached by competitors, I see this as failure of the company to build loyalty and less of the employees' fault. Why? Figure that out yourself.

Another important thing missing out from the business sector in Malaysia is the providence of pensions to the employees. I know in Malaysia, pensions provision is secured by the existence of EPF, but have you actually thought of whether an employee in your company could secure a good enough pension to lead a comfortable life after retirement? Probably an additional private scheme where feasible would satisfy your employees right? I think that this is even more true if your company is a multinational one.

Lastly, I would like to stress the appropriateness of pyin your employees right. And by paying I mean their monthly salary. There should be more studies on the appropriate pay employees should be gettind instead of just offering the market level. After all,

If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys

If you're still reading here, I would love to hear your comments on this.

Please please leave a comment ok?




References:

1. Critical for Malaysia to invest in human capital, Bernama, 13 April 2007.
   

Oil palm again

Can you hear me laughing? And this is possibly the last time you're gonna see this on national news, it's after all the country's no.1 agricultural export.

Read here and here for earlier posts on biofuel, oil palm and global warming.

Lai pwn Liou

Again stole a picture from The Star to illustrate my point.
A classical Lai pwnz Liou, BN pwnz DAP situation.

If you have trouble understanding the meaning of pwn, here is an explanation from wikipedia:

The slang term Pwn (see pronunciation note below), used primarily in the Internet gaming culture, means to soundly defeat an opponent.

In my words, pwn means to "properly own".

And that is what happened, with the votes counted here at Elizabeth's blog. While here is an analysis by freelunch2020 on the Machap by-elections. If you're lazy to browse over, here're the numbers:

BN - 5536 5533
DAP - 1449 1452
Spoilt - 156 166 (wth does spoilt mean?)

Let's see, MCA wins by a milder margin? In statistics, we have a term for that, and that is "not significantly different". Why? there's always room for errors and randomness.

I'll list the reasons freelunch2020 gave on why MCA won:

1. Damn high rubber and oil palm prices.
   It's not surprising at all. One of my friends who went to live with a family in a Felda estate on a homestay programme told me that before the trip, they were expecting to wake up early in the morning and live the lives of a rubber tapper. You know what they had for dinner? Abalone, I bet that most of you don't even get to eat abalone outside New Years celebrations. So no complains here, with Oil Palm being no.1 export, shortage for rubber shoots its price up, ask Tony Pua for his opinions on this. We all need rubber tyres don't we?
   
2. Super-power by-election development budget
   Nothing fantastic to hooha about also. How much you want to bet that the sources of the money comes from either:
   
   • Donations
   • Tax Payers' money
   • Profits from VCD selling?
3. Entertainment + makan sessions
   They even showed this on mainstream newspaper. Illegal I know, nothing you can do about it. You can either worry about this or more serious corruption cases going on.
4. Campaigning for only 10 days?
   What you mean is that for the candidates to fulfil their promises? No can do, if in the UK they don't fulfil their promises, the next election they're out. That's the end of their political careers, no second chance(unless there's a REALLY good explanation for that) anywhere. This all depends on the voters whether they would like to believe on empty promises too. Then again, can DAP fulfil their promises as well?
   
5. Allegations of money politics
   Hey they can even do that to sabotage Tun Mahathir already, what's the weird thing if it happens to someone of a lesser influence?

I don't see this as reasons for DAP's failure at all. As Lim Keng Yaik said, "I don't like the word Best Effort". If you did your best effort and can't deliver, then something must be wrong.

If you're a DAP supporter and reading this, I'm not against DAP in any ways. To me, I just don't see any point in voters voting for someone when there's a tried and true party working for them. Look how their lives have improved, isn't that the biggest reason why MCA won?

DAP: you seriously have to rethink your position. Bashing the government won't work as well if you cannot prove that you are able to do a better job then the current coalition. The whole ideology which you possess is really confusing. Uncle Lim still dreams of preventing BN to hold 2/3rds majority, that's quite unrealistic right? What we need now is a real opponent, with a true ideology which all Malaysians can trust(such as meritocracy?). Until then, you have to accept the fact that you will lose no matter how much effort you put in.

Seriously, you've been trying for so many years now and still can't win, something must be changed. Get innovative, think for the country, the big picture. This is only the prelude to the general elections, I really hope to see some really promising progress by then from the oppositions.

No matter how much I've thought about it, no matter how corrupted it is right to the core, no matter what underhand tactics they use, BN as I see it clearly offers the better package for all Malaysians with its multicultural components. Remember, multicultural is the key.




Random phrase of the day: "Real gold not scared of fierce fire - 真金不怕红炉火" (Forgive me for the shabby translation, I can't think right at this hour of the day)

p.s. congratulations to Lai on winning. Liou: don't take it too hard, as long as you work for the rakyat, they'll realise it, seriously action speaks louder than words.