Category: Lifestyle Activities

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Unifi in OUG!

Unifi began marketing their services in/around OUG today. I saw their little road-side booths on the way back from dinner and they stuck some spam into my mailbox today. This reminded me of an incident that I had with Unifi about 4 months ago.

I had been observing their workmen laying cables in OUG for several weeks. So, I knew that OUG was in their service pipeline. Then, one day, I found a Unifi box sitting on a pole directly behind my house. So, I knew that all the physical infrastructure had been lain in my area. Being curious about these things, I called up their hot-line and asked some questions. It went something like this:

Me: I noticed that your workmen have completed laying cables in my area and that there is a Unifi box sitting on a pole behind my house. When can I expect the service in my area to be activated?
Unifi: Sir, although we have the Unifi boxes in your area does not mean that we have service in the area. I do not know when it will become available.
Me: …. wtf? ….
Unifi: However, I could put you in our list of interested customers and give you a call when it comes to your area. Would you like that?
Me: Yes, please!

After that, I thought to myself – it is only in Malaysia that an ISP will complete the roll-out of their physical infrastructure to only sit on their behinds and wait for an unknown amount of time before activating service. Every communications engineer knows that the most expensive part of supplying fibre-to-the-home is the laying of the physical infrastructure. The rest is just software!

In a normal business, one would like to recoup the capital expenditure as quickly as possible. So, once the wires have been lain, one would expect the company to immediately start their service. In fact, I would expect their marketing department to begin selling the service even before the cable laying had been completed. It only makes business sense that way!

But in Malaysia, things are different.

As for me, I will not sign up so soon. I understand, only too well, the kind of work that needs to be done and I would rather someone else be their guinea pigs before I install mine. I would like the installers to gain enough experience making holes inside walls before they make some in mine. Also, I hope that their network guys can sort out any operational hiccups before I get my service.

So, I might sign up in the second half of the year – once things settle down in my life.

PS: I have been waiting for the Streamyx service in my office since Dec 15 last year!

Black Swan

A good friend of mine recommended that I catch this film – Black Swan – when it comes out in Malaysia. Curious, I looked up the trailer and it does look like just the right kind of film for me. I am partial towards stories that screw with my mind and the trailer does set things up just right – a story with enough schizoid tendencies thrown in.

Unfortunately, I do not know how our local film censors will take to the movie. Sometimes, I do wish that people would just learn to take things easy.

Crazy Year

The year 2010, was a crazy year for me. There were so many things that happened this year, that has never happened to me in the three decades prior. So, I felt that I should sum it up in a blog post for posterity. Since this is Christmas eve, it seemed a suitable time for reflection.

Graduation
My graduation day was, without argument, one of the most important days of my life. It was a long time coming. I am really happy to have achieved one of my life goals – to earn a PhD, and earn it I did. I had always known that I will do this at some point in my life. I just wasn’t sure if I would do it early, or at a later stage of my life. I am now glad that I did it early, while I still had the strength and stamina to go through the process. Now that it is done, I can focus on checking off the other items in my list.

There were many lessons learned through the process. Academically, I have become both more of a computer scientist and a physicist than I was before. This is because I had to learn a lot about semiconductor physics, and data-structures and algorithms for my research work. However, the biggest lessons were non-academic.

I like to stress that the PhD is a process. The process has given me the confidence to take on almost any challenge. It has pushed me to the edge of depression and driven me to near madness alone in the dark. It has actually forced me to my limits and I have lived to tell the tale. Some people jokingly call it a Permanent Head Damage, and I now understand why.

Travel
I got to travel quite a bit this year, both domestically and internationally. I finally got to visit Japan – checked off another life goal. It was an eye-opener and inspiration. I think that it was good for me to see how things were like in that country. Now, it is a target that I can aspire to in both my life and business. I think that there are a lot of good things that I took away from Japan, besides the good food and scenery.

The biggest lesson to take away from Japan was customer service. I do not think that there is a country anywhere else in the world, with a higher standard of customer service. I think that if my company has the budget, I will make it mandatory to send my sales staff to Japan just to experience what it is like there – a working holiday might be more easy to justify.

Traveling domestically has opened up my eyes to more beauty in Malaysia. It pains me that our country has so much to offer and is actually a paradise to live in, if not for the few kinks in the system. I would not trade Malaysia for any other place but will instead, try my best to change things from within, in whatever little way that I can, starting with myself and my company.

Recruiters
Now, this was some real crazy shit. There are only about two companies that I am interested to work for in this world, and I got approached by both their recruiters this year, amongst several others – I did not apply for any position with any of them. These companies that approached me are all leading multi-billion dollar multi-nationals in both Silicon Valley and Fen. One of them even came close to offering me a senior position.

Some of these companies are notoriously difficult to get into – they only hire the best engineers and technical people. Unfortunately, things did not work out with any of them due to various vagaries. Even then, this provided a much needed ego boost for me. Even if my previous employer may not have valued me much, I know that I am now in the radar of some major organisations and would unlikely starve. This gave me the confidence to resign.

Another lesson that I took away from all this is that – HR sucks. Therefore, I will structure my company in such a way as to reduce the need for a dedicated HR department. I have already taken away the need to process claims, bonuses, increments, and other forms of remuneration. I have also taken away the need to handle promotions, training and development. I guess that the only function left is hiring and firing. I got rid of those too.

Investors
Having heard that I intend to quit my job and go all out on my own business, I have also received a number of potential investment offers, both domestic and foreign. Without turning these potential investors down, I have highlighted to them that my biggest challenge at the moment is not cash-flow but staffing. I do not need investors as much as I need people who can contribute with technical work. I have lots of projects that I want to work on, but only two hands.

As I have always alluded to, any problem that can be solved with money is not a problem at all. I am in this for the long-haul and am not looking for a quick exit. Therefore, my ideal investor would be someone who can bring in something other than just money. I am looking for value investors, not cash ones. There are plenty of alternative sources for cash – including the local ah long if I am pressed.

However, I would likely accept some of these potential investors in the future, just not now. Picking an investor is a very delicate thing and I would like to take some time to consider things before jumping into bed with multiple partners. I have some ideas on how to grow the business without massive cash injections. There are many examples of successful boot-strapped companies. I am not greedy.

Opportunities
A number of potential business opportunities have also opened up to me this year. I am presently in talks with a number of very different people, everything from SMEs to PLCs, just no MNCs yet. In fact, this is a major factor that affected my decision to resign from my previous employ. I would like to start things on a right footing and decided against moon-lighting even if many others had advised me to do so.

I have worked up a number of proposals this year and while none of them have come to fruition yet, I am still in discussions on some of them. I know that while talk is cheap, and none of it means anything, I am humbled by the fact that some of these people are even talking to me – including people whom I would never have had dreamed of access to before.

Life is full of opportunities. All I need is one. I am not greedy.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

IRIS Soundtrack

An amazing television series from the Koreans. I am just blown away. It makes perfect sense that this series would win so many Korean awards. In fact, if this was in English, it would probably grab a ton of Emmys too. Goodness knows that Hollywood lacks the depth to make these sort of stories anymore. Anyway, a good series comes with very good music, and this is a sampling.

PS: I must note that I think the hand-held cam is coming back in-vogue. It gives a dark series like this, an added boost in disorientation. Very well executed.

IRIS Series

Being unemployed has its perks. I have been curious about this Korean series for quite a while but never came around to buying it. I finally bought it recently and it has blown my mind. I have to admit that I bought it for three reasons: the beauties on the cover, the big-name stars and the bad-ass story-line. No disappointments so far.

Iris (아이리스) is a South Korean espionage television drama series broadcast by KBS in 2009. With a budget in excess of 20 billion won, it, along with its spin-off Athena: Goddess of War, share the record for the most expensive Korean dramas ever produced.

Premiering in October 2009, the series was a critical and commercial success, with an average viewership of over 30% in addition to ranking as the top program consistently every week after its debut. The series also took home many of the highest honors at the 2009 KBS Drama Acting Awards, including Lee Byung-hun winning the top recognition in the form of the Daesang Award. Among other nominations and recognitions, Lee and Kim Tae-hee were also named as one of the best on-screen couples.

The plot revolves around two friends from the 707th Special Mission Battalion recruited into a secret South Korean black ops agency known as the National Security Service. Of the pair, recruit Kim Hyun-jun begins to uncover evidence that his foggy past may not be so irrelevant to his joining of the secret organization after all. As the two friends find their loyalties tested and forge new, unlikely alliances, the journey takes them from their home country to Hungary, Japan, and China where they find themselves at the center of an international conspiracy.

What can I say. The story has not ceased to twist and turn like a hurricane gone crazy and it has been keeping me at the edge of my seat. The fact that the lead-actress is easy on the eyes doesn’t really matter. I am thoroughly attracted by the tensions between the three main male characters, best-friend and arch-rival – all flawed to the core with their own insecurities and fears and trying their hardest to kill each other.

I think that it will be useful to keep tabs on the Korean film industry. They seem to be intent on producing crazy shows.