Just an update

Well, it have been few weeks since I update this blog. Life become busy and busy after the only two horses run to a greener farm. Wish them good luck.

So, what am I busy with? Lots. From my work, to my family, and my hobby, I just wish I could have more time. Sometime, an afternoon nap is a luxury for me.

Last few days, I went to a training at Melaka with all the managers in my office. Quite an interesting training, just the food is too much. I got breakfast, then morning tea break, then lunch, then afternoon tea break, dinner and supper. So, now I have to reduce my meal since the food quota is finished.

Some very interesting knowledge that I learned from the training, first thing is about my preferred way of thinking or working and second is the preferred way I handle conflict. Basically I know who I am, but these test results really give me a chance to know the people around me more.

So, I am an introvert, a sensing person, prefer thinking in making decision and use perceiving to interact with outer world. In short, an introverted thinking with extraverted sensing. Some very interesting characteristic of these people is that,

... they are egalitarian and generally tolerant of a wide range of behavior - until their ruling logical principles are attacked. at that point, they can surprise others by expressing their firm and clear judgments.

It just sound like me. And this type of human often function as troubleshooters XD. Now I finally know why I'm so good at troubleshooting and cleaning shit.

Then I learned that I'm accommodate type when handling conflict. Meaning that you don't need to fight with me cause I going to give you what you want and leave me alone XD. It's true for most of the time especially talking about money, credit, and benefit. You just need to tell me you want that and I will give to you for free. So I'm a loser? You can always confirm that until you touch on my believes and step on my tail, then I can show you who is the loser this time XD.

Basically it is quite interesting to know how people look at you and discover something you don't know about yourself, like my conception about time, My boss and colleagues alway said I'm a 50% man, cause in their perception I always do half for my tasks although I finished it. But now I know that I'm a perceiving type, it mean I prefer flexible and adaptable life. Do I complete my job? Yes, but in the last minute cause perceiving type have a burst of energy in the last minute XD. So, I hope they can understand why I only do "50%".

I like psychology since I was young, I like to watch people, look at what they are doing, how they handling their work, how they talk, and analyzing of why they doing that way, thinking and talking that way. Apart from being interesting to watch people, it's actually let me study how these people behave and how dangerous they are to my life. Earth is a dangerous place, so for all the outsiders, please go back to your planet for safe XD.

Microsoft owned Skype

An USD8.5b deal and Micro$oft owned Skype. I was Skype user since few years ago and I used to use its VoIP when I was oversea to call to my family's mobile phone with about USD0.06 per minute, it's definitely very cheap solution if you found free wifi service.

So how Micro$oft will use this product? According to Micro$oft CEO, Ballmer, he said

"We're committed to optimizing Skype for the TV, with Xbox and Kinect, for the Windows Phone, and the Windows PC," he said. "We [also] want to extend the reach of Skype by connecting Skype users with users of our Outlook products, our Lync enterprise unified communications product, Xbox LIVE, and other opportunities like Messenger and Hotmail."

But everyone know that Micro$oft have a very famous product call Messenger and it is using different technology (client/server vs peer-to-peer), then why Micro$oft bought over Skype. Google walked alway years ago because owning Skype means either they have to rewrite Skype from zero, or rebuild Google current network architecture. I believe Micro$oft is facing the same problem now. Then why Micro$oft still purchase Skype?

I'm not graduate from business school, but from an engineer point of view, if there are two company that selling similar product/service, they are competing each other; but if one company selling similar product/service with two different name, they are helping each other to penetrate deeper into the market. At least now, Google have to fight harder to gain the market share.

Basically, as an end user, we always hope to continue to enjoy the free and better service provided by whoever. I always believe that Micro$oft is very good at long term war. With introduction of Win7 mobile OS, they really need something to regain the market from Android. Symbian is dead since Nokia itself has gave up on their own OS and jump into Win7 phone. Blackberry has nothing to scare about since their target is more for business and old man XD. iPhone is a very well designed phone, but they cant dominant the market also since only one factory in this world is producing the phone. So, left Android which can threaten Micro$oft to gain it market share in smart phone.

So, lets see what magic can our software giant show to knock down the internet giant.

Thought of the day

Received this from my wife, something for us to contemplate.

Germany is a highly industrialised country. It produces top brands like Benz, BMW, Simons etc. The nuclear reactor pump is made in a small town in this country. In such a country, many will think its people leads a luxurious life. At least that was my impression before my study trip.

When I arrived at Hamburg, my colleagues who work in Hamburg arranged a welcome party for me in a restaurant. As we walked into the restaurant, we noticed that a lot of tables were empty. There was a table where a young couple was having their meal. There were only two dishes and two cans of beer on the table. I wondered if such simple meal could be romantic, and whether the girl will leave this stingy guy.

There were a few old ladies on another table. When a dish is served, the waiter would distribute the food for them, and they would finish every bit of the food on their plates.

We did not pay much attention to them, as we were looking forward to the dishes we ordered. As we were hungry, our local colleague ordered more food for us.

As the restaurant was quiet, the food came quite fast. Since there were other activities arranged for us, we did not spend much time dining. When we left, there were still about one third of unconsumed food on the table.

When we were leaving the restaurant, we heard someone calling us. We noticed the old ladies in the restaurant were talking about us to the restaurant owner. When they spoke to us in English, we understood that they were unhappy about us wasting so much food. We immediately felt that they were really being too busybody.

"We paid for our food, it is none of your business how much food we left behind," my colleague Gui told the old ladies.

The old ladies were furious. One of them immediately took her handphone out and made a call to someone. After a while, a man in uniform claimed to be an officer from the Social Security organisation arrived. Upon knowing what the dispute was, he issued us a 50 Mark fine.

We all kept quiet. The local colleague took out a 50 Mark note and repeatedly apologised to the officer.

The officer told us in a stern voice, "ORDER WHAT YOU CAN CONSUME, MONEY IS YOURS BUT RESOURCES BELONG TO THE SOCIETY. THERE ARE MANY OTHERS IN THE WORLD WHO ARE FACING SHORTAGE OF RESOURCES. YOU HAVE NO REASON TO WASTE RESOURCES."

Our face turned red. We all agreed with him in our hearts. The mindset of people of this rich country put all of us to shame. WE REALLY NEED TO REFLECT ON THIS. We are from country which is not very rich in resources.

To save face, we order large quanitity and also waste food when we give others a treat. THIS LESSON TAUGHT US A LESSON TO THINK SERIOUSLY ABOUT CHANGING OUR BAD HABITS.

We all assumed that we are the owner of the world, but the truth is we robbed it from the nature. More and more human occupied this world, but the earth resources are limited. There will be a day when money is not able to buy an apple if we continue squander the resources.