Good news to everyone in Penang, Malaysia. It turns out Penang is the next area in Malaysia to be covered by wimax. Apparently P1W1max is given the green light to building the infrastructure, including base stations to provide the wimax services.

I am no where near Penang, but from the way I see it, it shows that nationwide coverage may not just be an empty promise.

You do remember the promise right? 25% of Malaysia covered by year end.

Quoting – “P1 commercially launched its WiMAX services in mid-August, the first operator to do so in Malaysia and the Asia-Pacific region. The company has said it plans to extend coverage to major cities in Johor, Penang, Kedah, Perak, Negeri Sembilan and Malacca by year-end, in line with its mandate to cover 25% of the peninsula’s population. Its services are currently available in selected areas in the Klang Valley.”

Can’t wait

Source – TheEdgeDaily

One of the biggest problem for working people is that they always bring back work home. I used to think that this is nonsense. Who would want to bring work back home? But when I started working, the habit comes naturally and without even realizing it, I’m already doing it.

The worst case scenario would be when you bring back your problem from your workplace. The problem is in your head, and it will haunt you the rest of your day at home. If you bring back only paperwork, you will be able to finish it and you’re done. But if you bring back your problem which is in your head, it will always be there. And this will have more negative effect on your life.

• You will have no mood to have fun.
• You may accidentally channel your anger and frustration to your family.
• You will suffer stress and your work is becoming more of a burden to you.
• In short.. nothing good can come with bringing work back home.

How to leave work at work

If you are suffering from the above symptoms, and you know it is because you are bringing work back home, you may want to try these tips :

1) Create parting ritual
Create a parting ritual everytime you finish your work at your office. I personally clear up everything on my table and put it in one tray. I imagine that that is my black hole tray, where no work will be able to break free until 8am tomorrow morning.

You can create your own ritual like consciously locking the door of your office and saying goodbye to your work. This may sound silly but it has a great impact on your subconcious mind. You are making a closure.

2) Put up the sign – Do Not Disturb
Even when we successfully leave the work at work, the work sometimes manage to find you. Your colleague may call you during your off day to help him with something. What you should do, is to formally inform everyone that you are not to be disturbed unless it is a matter of life and death. A bit harsh, I know, but works like a charm.

I however am working as a maintenance engineer. And I almost always will be called to work if there’s any major breakdown. In my case, I can’t really turn down any call for help even when it is 3 in the morning.

If you are in other line of work, you should put up the sign. It’ll help.

3) Remind yourself in black and white
Take a piece of paper, and write these sentence on it. Whenever you are returning from work, read them out loud.

• My family is the most important thing to me.
• The time with my family is precious. I don’t want to miss a single thing.
• My family deserve the best from me, the best attention, the best conversation, the best treatment.

After a week or two reading them, you will memorize the sentence and it will be permanently written in your subconcious mind.

I’m sure there are many other methods we can do to keep work from following us home, but these three are the best way to do it. Try it.. You’ll see.

– I wonder –
How do you leave work at work?

——– Personal Note ———-
In two more days Muslims around the world will celebrate Aidilfitri (It is pronounced Eye – Deal – Fit – Ree). Just a brief explanation of the day, it is to celebrate the victory of successfully completing the one month of fasting. It is a joyous holiday here in Malaysia, where everyone will take this opportunity to be with family.

“Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir Batin”

Photo Credit – JCardinal18

Close your eyes

This is an imagination exercise. Of course in order for you to read this you will have to open your eyes. My mistake.. Imagine you are a bank robber and you are planning to rob a bank this afternoon.

The bank has the most sophisticated security in the world. The vault is about a meter thick, the security guards are experienced marines, Safe to say that if there is one bank in the world which is the most secured, this would be it.

How do you plan to empty the vault?

(I’m going to assume you are taking 5 minutes of your time thinking about a plan)

This is what I will do. I will attack the weakest link of the security defense, which is the manager of the bank. Easy, just kidnap his family and demand him to clear the vault for you. He will be able to bypass any security and even come up with a solution to how you can escape. Why? Because he is the weakest link. He will do anything to keep his family safe. Mission accomplished.

Now whether or not you will successfully enjoy the money is a different thing. I just want you to empty the vault. And that’s the best and easiest way to do it. I must put a disclaimer that this article is never intended to promote bank robbery.

The Actual Message of the Article

In everything you do, always address the weakest link. You fortify this link, you are actually fortifying the whole system.

The Application in Security

1) Car
The easiest method to steal a car is to grab the key from the driver while he is trying to open the door.

• When you are walking towards your parked car, look around for suspicious people walking.
• Only use your key when you are very near to the car and are sure nobody else is around.

2) Pin number or password
Your computer maybe password protected, but it will be of no use if your password is actually written on the monitor.

• Use three passwords your entire life. One super password for anything related to money, another is for your other important matters (email on the business card etc), and another for everything else.
• Don’t use password that is related to you (your name, DOB etc), or in the dictionary. This should already be the one universal advice when it comes to choice of password.

3) Online banking
Believe it or not, your bank actually has geniuses on their payroll to ensure the bank’s online security is top notch. This will all be useless if you have no idea what is phishing and believe an email that looks like they are sent from your bank is from your bank.

• Never click on links in an email. It is always better to type in your bank url on your browser.
• If you are unsure of the email, just call your bank’s call center and ask. That’s why they are there.

Conclusion – Any system is usually solidly secured. However, there will always be the weakest link in the system. Determine this first and act accordingly, you may have avoided becoming another victim in the local newspaper.

p.s. This doesn’t only apply to security. You can also use the same concept to fortify your human resources, your business etc.

– I wonder –
Any other security tips you might want to share?

———— Personal Note ————
I remember the night my mother was robbed back in 2002. She was waiting for the bus alone when two guys on a motorcycle approached her asking for direction. She knew something was wrong and tried to avoid them. Suddenly one of the guys snatched her handbag and when she didn’t let go, he hit her with his helmet. She was bleeding and was sent to the hospital by a passerby.

Everytime I think of this incident, only one thing comes to mind – “How grateful I am that she is safe.” Remember guys.. when you are robbed and all they want is the wallet, give it to them. Nothing worth risking your life.

Photo Credit – Richt

/end memory

Nobody likes making mistakes. However our life today can only be better if we learn from the mistake we did yesterday. There is also no way we can be 100% free from making mistakes. So we might as well just accept the fact that we will make mistake and keep learning from it throughout our life.

I believe that there is however another set of mistakes that we need to avoid at all cost – The mistakes we do after making mistakes. Enlisted below are some of the most common mistakes we usually do after making mistakes.

1) Refuse to admit that mistakes had been done

Some people are so egoistic that they will never accept the fact that they had made a mistake. For this type of people, mistakes are signs of weakness and being the egoist that they are, they will never admit to that.

Another type of people who fall into this category is those who were always in denial after a mistake has been made. They are so afraid of making mistakes that they deny the mistake ever happened. These are not the kind of people you want to be around with.

How can we learn from our mistakes if we never actually admit there was one?

2) Try to forget the mistakes

Some mistakes are embarassingly painful. These will usually be buried deep down in our memory with the hope that it will be forgotten. Personally, trying to forget our mistake is a very stupid move. If we forget it, it will be like buying a hideous van and burn it down right away. People will never notice the van but your money spent to buy the van is loss forever. Don’t you value your money?

3) Blame self or others.

This habit has become sort of a built-in habit to everyone. Once a mistake was done, the first thing people will do is to find whose fault it is. It will never serve any function except the illusion that the mistake has been solved. It can be important however to do this if finding the fault will solve the problem.

The worst case scenario is when we are blaming ourselves for the mistake. Once we do this, believe me, there’s no way out. Our mind will use all of its resource to further punish ourselves for the mistake. It will be like a black hole with no way out. Don’t go there.

4) No room for forgiveness.

This is sort of related to point 3. But it is very significant that it deserve its own number. Forgiveness is always the hardest thing to do. We can say anything, read all the books but when your life was screwed up by a person, it will be very hard to forgive him.

That is why, we need to have that room in our heart for forgiveness. Set up this room in our heart. We don’t necessarily need to forgive him right away, but knowing that there’s a room in there for forgiveness will definitely help later on.

5) Justify mistakes

Very similar to point number 1, the person who make this mistake will come up with justification as to why a mistake was made. Remember the girl who cried wolf? She might made a mistake the first time thinking that she saw a wolf. And when the villagers came she made excuses that she was just fooling around. You know how it ended.

Justifying mistakes does not make the mistake go away. It will not help you learn from it either.

6) Refuse to analyze your mistake

Being an engineer, when a problem / mistake occurs in an operation, the first step is always “redefining the problem”. Let say an operator forgot to switch on a pump and ruined the whole operation. I can straight away scold him or give him a warning letter. But this will not solve the problem. If he can forget the first time, the chances are he will forget it again later.

I should study if there were any possibility the pump can be run automatically and thus removing the problem altogether. Or maybe put up a checklist to help the operator remember.

Analyzing mistake is the most important things to do right after a mistake has been made. If not the mistake made will serve no purpose and you will find that your life is just one big boring loop where the same mistake is being repeated everyday

– I wonder –
What’s your biggest shareable mistake in your life?

———– Personal Note ————–
My biggest shareable mistake in life is when I was in my final year. I literally spent all my time chatting on IRC. I failed a subject and did poorly on others. That for me is my most expensive lesson in life.

I made a lot of good friends though.. I just need to manage my priorities better.

Photo Credit – Endlisnis