Sybreon Ones Nought

Open Source Hardware

That’s just someone giving a short introductory talk on what is open-source hardware. Someone.

Dragon Age 2

Oh my goodness! I wish I had more time to play these games … looks like my PS3 is going to be enjoyed by my staff more than by me!

Internet Democracy

…it is in fact, an amazing kind of Athenian democracy, if you forget about the ethics of what it is they are doing…

I find it surprising that most people cannot seem to grasp the concept of an Internet democracy. It may seem very chaotic to those watching from the outside but to those who are used to working on the Internet, these kind of Athenian democracies are the norm, rather than the exception. Fast forward to 3:00 to get an explanation of how Anonymous works.

Missing the Piano

I’ve not caressed the keys for ages. Now that I have resigned from my job and am clearing the balance of my annual leave, I have a bit of free time and maybe I should take some time out to touch them once more. But for now, I will have to make do with listening to youtube renditions and imagine myself making music like I used to do (but no longer am able to now – oh, the skills lost).

Classical – Beethoven, Moonlight Sonata
This piece has special place in my heart. It is the only thing I can play with my eyes closed throughout.

Romantic – Chopin, Nocturne op 48 no 1
This may not be as famous as Opus 9 No 2, but it is certainly my favourite nocturne as it has a wide emotional range.

Impressionist – Debussy, Arabesque
This piece is one that can be played differently, each and every time.

Jazz – Gershwin, Prelude no 1
I used to hammer the keys with my fist – just like in the video – cause it would hurt my little pinky otherwise. Actually, my little pinky would still hurt by the end.

Talented Malaysians

I find the recent announcement by our PM of a new visa status for recruiting talented Malaysians back to Malaysia, rather worrying for it ends up creating a new class of elite with privileges that extend above other equally talented Malaysians, who may have chosen to stay instead of migration (not that they did not have opportunities to do so).

For one, foreign spouses of these talented Malaysians would be able to find jobs locally, while the problems of foreign spouses marrying our local talent still remains unresolved. The problem of foreign spouses in Malaysia is a long and complicated problem, with many of them giving birth to tax-paying working professional Malaysian talents, but still need to visit the Immigration department regularly with their husbands to extend their social visit pass.

This is a worrying sign. While I applaud the government’s efforts at attracting talent to Malaysia, the signal that it sends is that those who actually made the decision to stay and fight the good fight, are now relegated to second class talents. Instead, it rewards those who decided to turn tail and run away from all the problems that plague our nation with perks on top of perks.

Please be fair and allow all foreign spouses to get their PR in accordance to our laws instead of the whims and fancies of the local immigration departments. Also, make the country a suitable environment for nurturing and growing local talent instead of buying these same talents back after forcing them out of the country due to misguided policies on the ground.

There is obviously a brain drain problem in Malaysia, but it is more than just about those who have decided to pack up their bags and leave the country. There is also the problem of those within the country, who are relegated to the benches and not appreciated. I have more to share about this issue but that will the subject of another blog at the end of the month.

However, what I think would be useful to our government is this – make Malaysia more startup friendly. We could create a new class of founder visas – for people who are interested in starting up companies in Malaysia. That would really help increase the mass of small and medium enterprises in Malaysia, which are the backbone of any strong economy.

PS: If Malaysia gets more and more hostile towards me, I might need to move elsewhere. But for now, I will stay and fight the good fight. 🙂

Internship Woes

TLDR: Locals do not want to work for me, and I cannot hire foreigners who do. Sigh.

I’ve been trying to hire some interns to help out with work in my company. However, I have had problems – serious ones.

I get applications from several local universities. As a standard, I will get them to answer a list of 15 screener questions. I remind them that getting the answer right is not important as I only wish to understand how they think. In fact, most of the questions have no right answers at all. Unfortunately, most of the local university students do not even attempt the questions, finding them too difficult to answer. The ones who try to answer them are foreign students at local universities.

So, I have offered internship positions to almost everyone who actually attempts to answer the questions reasonably. Unfortunately, the locals whom I have offered, tend not to want to work for me once they find out that I am a small shop. The foreign students at local universities usually end up doing better and get offers from multi-nationals and so, I cannot compete.

As a result, I have difficulties hiring local students.

Then, out of the blue, I get applications for internships from foreign nationals at one of the world’s Top 30 universities. As usual, I send them to my screener and all of them impressed me with the depth of their answers. So, I was happy and looking forward to taking all of them in. Again, I mist reiterate that these are really good students from one of the top universities in the world – one even has two papers being published this coming year.

So, I contacted the Immigration Department and told to visit the local office for the forms and checklist. This is when disaster struck again. I was told by the officer that my company is too small and will not meet the requirements to hire foreigners as interns. I can understand the logic and rationale behind such a policy but it is a little disheartening to find out that the quality people who actually want to work for me, cannot.

So goes my hiring woes – the locals whom I want to take, do not want to work for a small company; and I do not qualify to hire foreigners from a top university who want to work for me. I’ll take this in my stride, as part of the growing process. I am now more determined than ever to build my company into a really large one so that I can happily hire the foreigners who want to work for me in the future.

PS: The locals do not seem to understand the adventure that is interning at a small company doing cutting edge work. It’s much better than arranging name cards or photocopying in a local multi-national.