Just a quick update from Melbourne airport.
I have been really busy with last minute preparations for my sister's wedding and didn't have the time to access the net.
However, I now have about 30 mintues to kill before I get onto my flight back to Malaysia. Saw an internet cafe. Hmmmm. Got myself a 20 minutes internet access card for $4 and a latte and I am ready to go.
Well it has been a very hectic week and I wish I had more time to explore the city. Maybe next time.
When I first got here the place was chilly. My sister had told us that the temperature of the place was around 40 degree and I didn't pack and warm clothing. The temperature has been fluctuating between 20 and 24 degrees. I was even caught in a heavy downpour the day before yesterday while roaming around the city with my dad. A few minutes later the clouds vanished and the sun was up. That's Melbourne.
What do I like about Melbourne?
A lot of things really. But here are the top 3 things....
1. The fact that I can drink straight from the tap. Don't laugh. After years of getting muddy water on the tap in Malaysia, this is something amazing.
2. Pedestrian friendliness. You can walk to almost everywhere in the city.
3. The lovely parks. I liked the Royal Botanic Gardens by the Yarra the most.
What I don't like about Melbourne?
Not that many.
1. Almost all shops close after 5pm. Definitely no roadside teh tarik stalls like in Malaysia where you can grap a cup of tea after midnight.
2. Everything (well almost everything) is so bloody expensive. Yes! The Malaysian Ringitt doesn't go much.
More updates including something about the wedding later. Till then...
TAGS: Australia Melbourne
11 February 2006
06 February 2006
Some Pictures From Melbourne
Royal Botanic Gardens
By the Yarra River
Royal Botanic Garden
To Melbourne
04 February 2006
Greetings From Australia
Just a short update from the land 'Down Under'.
Yeah! I am typing this from my sister's apartment in Melbourne. I am here for her wedding with the rest of our family.
I am really missing my wife and Rahil who could not make it. My wife is several months pregnant with our second baby and is in no condition to travel.
Will try to post up some pics with my next post. As the locals say.... Good day mate!
Yeah! I am typing this from my sister's apartment in Melbourne. I am here for her wedding with the rest of our family.
I am really missing my wife and Rahil who could not make it. My wife is several months pregnant with our second baby and is in no condition to travel.
Will try to post up some pics with my next post. As the locals say.... Good day mate!
29 January 2006
25 January 2006
Getting Hot
The past few days have been so damn hot. Saw some clouds but the rains didn’t come. Yesterday, I was feeling so thirsty I downed a couple of cold drinks including my favourite 'teh-o-ais-limau' (iced lemon tea).
And in the evening I had a sore throat and a slight headache. I was worried because that is usually the symptoms before I have fever. And I definitly don't want to have fever when I am due to go for a trip overseas soon. So at night, I took all the necessary precautions. Gargle with warm salt water. Ingested 2 paracetamol tablets + 2 Vitamin C tablets. I am feeling much better today but still have a sore throat.
Some people can argue all they want but there is no denying that the Earth is gradually heating up. And I believe that the main reason for this is the loss of our forests. Massive deforestation is taking place all around the World. Malaysia is no exception.
This week, we noted the non-stop movement of huge timber-laden trucks all day along the north-south highway coming from somewhere on the Malaysian-Thai border. I don’t doubt that the logging activity is legal, otherwise these trucks won’t be traveling on the highway during daytime.
Though unusually heavy rains were the cause of the recent floods in northern parts of Malaysia including Kedah where I stay. Read my older posts here and here.
I am of the opinion that deforestation in these parts contributed to the sudden rise in water levels. Without vegetation cover to absorb the rainwater, they quickly poured down the hills, carrying with it the top soil into already heavily silted-up steams and rivers (some of which resemble drains). It's no wonder they overflowed.
During my undergraduate day in India, I was led to believe that there is such a thing as sustainable Forest management.
The PEFC Council (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes) defines it as forestry “based on environmentally, socially beneficial and economically viable management of forests for present and future generations”.
On the other hand, sustainable forestry is defined by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI) as “working with nature to ensure the future of the nation's forests for generations to come”.
Sounds nice doesn’t it. The problem is that companies often look at forestry as a pure commercial activity and timber as a renewable valuable product. We are not taking into consideration the other flora and fauna that exist among the trees.
I am not sure whether, Malaysian timber companies are following sustainable forestry practices or even whether they are replanting the trees in place of those they cut down.
And the Earth is getting hotter.
UPDATE:
Just read in the Star that Malaysia was ranked 9th out of of 133 countries in terms of Environment conservation (19 places ahead of the US) in a study called the 2006 Environment Performance Index which was carried out jointly by the joint effort by Yale and Columbia Universities.
TAGS: Environment Flood Forestry
And in the evening I had a sore throat and a slight headache. I was worried because that is usually the symptoms before I have fever. And I definitly don't want to have fever when I am due to go for a trip overseas soon. So at night, I took all the necessary precautions. Gargle with warm salt water. Ingested 2 paracetamol tablets + 2 Vitamin C tablets. I am feeling much better today but still have a sore throat.
Some people can argue all they want but there is no denying that the Earth is gradually heating up. And I believe that the main reason for this is the loss of our forests. Massive deforestation is taking place all around the World. Malaysia is no exception.
This week, we noted the non-stop movement of huge timber-laden trucks all day along the north-south highway coming from somewhere on the Malaysian-Thai border. I don’t doubt that the logging activity is legal, otherwise these trucks won’t be traveling on the highway during daytime.
Though unusually heavy rains were the cause of the recent floods in northern parts of Malaysia including Kedah where I stay. Read my older posts here and here.
I am of the opinion that deforestation in these parts contributed to the sudden rise in water levels. Without vegetation cover to absorb the rainwater, they quickly poured down the hills, carrying with it the top soil into already heavily silted-up steams and rivers (some of which resemble drains). It's no wonder they overflowed.
During my undergraduate day in India, I was led to believe that there is such a thing as sustainable Forest management.
The PEFC Council (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes) defines it as forestry “based on environmentally, socially beneficial and economically viable management of forests for present and future generations”.
On the other hand, sustainable forestry is defined by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI) as “working with nature to ensure the future of the nation's forests for generations to come”.
Sounds nice doesn’t it. The problem is that companies often look at forestry as a pure commercial activity and timber as a renewable valuable product. We are not taking into consideration the other flora and fauna that exist among the trees.
I am not sure whether, Malaysian timber companies are following sustainable forestry practices or even whether they are replanting the trees in place of those they cut down.
And the Earth is getting hotter.
UPDATE:
Just read in the Star that Malaysia was ranked 9th out of of 133 countries in terms of Environment conservation (19 places ahead of the US) in a study called the 2006 Environment Performance Index which was carried out jointly by the joint effort by Yale and Columbia Universities.
TAGS: Environment Flood Forestry
23 January 2006
Spicing Up My Blog
I have been a loyal Blogger fan for quite some time now (since 2003) but I would be lying if I said that I haven’t been tempted to get my own Wordpress powered blog (henceforth referred to as WPPB). Don’t get me wrong, Blogger is great but it lacks some of the bells and whistles that Wordpress and others provide.
However, I am too busy/lazy to go ahead. At the same time Blogger just gets better and better. This includes the ability to add adsense links directly into the template through a few clicks.
From time to time I found some great ways to spice up my blog. I think new bloggers might find this useful.
Lets take it from the start. I modified the generic template provided by Blogger. Some of my older friends complained that the previous font size and font colour was hard to read. So I increased the font size. I also increased the overall margin as I felt that too much space was left unused.
I was also really envious of the way that WPPB allows visitors (and the owners) to view the latest comments on their blogs. This problem was solved when I found out two great hacks – one for the Haloscan comments and another for comments on Blogger, which I promptly added to my blog template.
The problem of spam comments has reduced drastically ever since I implemented the word verification system provided by blogger
Adding and deleting links using the Blogger template was such a hassle and sometimes I would delete some links by mistake. This problem was finally solved when I signed up with Blogrolling. Now I can add (or delete) links with just a few clicks.
One particular feature of WPPB, which I really wanted was the ability to group posts into categories. One day I noticed that a blog using the feature provided by del.icio.us. And as they say, "the rest is history".
A blog comes alive with pictures. Looking around, I noticed that there were several sites where I could put up my pictures (for free) and link back from my blog.
I don’t believe in putting all my eggs in one basket. Therefore, I am using, Textamerica, Flickr, as well as Blogger itself. I really like the small Flash panel (on the right side column), which shows my most recent pictures posted up on Textamerica.
If you were a regular visitor to my blog, you would have realized that instead of the boring grey space on top, I now have a banner made up of my Flickr photostream. I noticed that some WPPB used a plugin, which allows them to display a Flickr badge of the latest pictures. I just modified this code and that’s what you see right up there.
Now, my Blog is fully powered up (well almost).
TAGS: Blogger Blogs del.icio.us Flickr Hacks new look textamerica
However, I am too busy/lazy to go ahead. At the same time Blogger just gets better and better. This includes the ability to add adsense links directly into the template through a few clicks.
From time to time I found some great ways to spice up my blog. I think new bloggers might find this useful.
Lets take it from the start. I modified the generic template provided by Blogger. Some of my older friends complained that the previous font size and font colour was hard to read. So I increased the font size. I also increased the overall margin as I felt that too much space was left unused.
I was also really envious of the way that WPPB allows visitors (and the owners) to view the latest comments on their blogs. This problem was solved when I found out two great hacks – one for the Haloscan comments and another for comments on Blogger, which I promptly added to my blog template.
The problem of spam comments has reduced drastically ever since I implemented the word verification system provided by blogger
Adding and deleting links using the Blogger template was such a hassle and sometimes I would delete some links by mistake. This problem was finally solved when I signed up with Blogrolling. Now I can add (or delete) links with just a few clicks.
One particular feature of WPPB, which I really wanted was the ability to group posts into categories. One day I noticed that a blog using the feature provided by del.icio.us. And as they say, "the rest is history".
A blog comes alive with pictures. Looking around, I noticed that there were several sites where I could put up my pictures (for free) and link back from my blog.
I don’t believe in putting all my eggs in one basket. Therefore, I am using, Textamerica, Flickr, as well as Blogger itself. I really like the small Flash panel (on the right side column), which shows my most recent pictures posted up on Textamerica.
If you were a regular visitor to my blog, you would have realized that instead of the boring grey space on top, I now have a banner made up of my Flickr photostream. I noticed that some WPPB used a plugin, which allows them to display a Flickr badge of the latest pictures. I just modified this code and that’s what you see right up there.
Now, my Blog is fully powered up (well almost).
TAGS: Blogger Blogs del.icio.us Flickr Hacks new look textamerica
17 January 2006
Lifestyle of Online Shoppers
Some people who read my previous post joked (off-line) that I had spent time eating and roaming around Bukit Bintang instead of listening to the presentations at the conference. They are partly right. I try to enjoy myself at every conference I attend.
However, the main reasons I attend conferences are to:
1. Listen to experts on topics of interest;
2. Present papers and get feedback from others; and
3. Network – develop professional relationships.
Two of my papers (jointly written with my wife) were accepted for presentation in the conference. I presented one while she presented another. As you can see, ours is a very symbiotic relationship – mutually beneficial.
My paper presented the findings of a study regarding the Internet oriented lifestyles of those who shop online and those who don’t - online Malaysian shoppers and non-shoppers.
The study was conducted last year and confined to the residents in some areas of Kedah and the Klang Valley (Kuala Lumpur and Selangor) of Malaysia. Respondents were internet users from both gender, aged 18 and above.
The findings were really interesting. Based on the analysis of 311 usuable responses, it was found that most online shoppers are young males who were professionals, managers or had their own businesses. They are less concerned about online security, are competent internet users and shop online because they find it fun, easy and convenient.
The study also revealed some fundamental satisfiers and dis-satisfiers of shopping online. We recommend that E-commerce companies as well as those planning to start e-commerce operations should take into consideration the needs and wants of each consumer group as well as the factors preventing them from involving in buying online.
Those companies should take steps to reduce the fears of the consumers with regards to online shopping. Improving the store reputation and brand image as well as providing specific warranties, would go a long way in improving consumer confidence.
Besides demonstrating that online shopping is convenient, safe, easy and fun, online stores must also offer other incentives and motivations. Thus, besides building consumer confidence, offering more rewarding shopping experience than what is presently available would go a long way in persuading consumers to shop online and to continue doing so in the future.
TAGS: AGBA Conference E-commerce Online Shopping Research
However, the main reasons I attend conferences are to:
1. Listen to experts on topics of interest;
2. Present papers and get feedback from others; and
3. Network – develop professional relationships.
Two of my papers (jointly written with my wife) were accepted for presentation in the conference. I presented one while she presented another. As you can see, ours is a very symbiotic relationship – mutually beneficial.
My paper presented the findings of a study regarding the Internet oriented lifestyles of those who shop online and those who don’t - online Malaysian shoppers and non-shoppers.
The study was conducted last year and confined to the residents in some areas of Kedah and the Klang Valley (Kuala Lumpur and Selangor) of Malaysia. Respondents were internet users from both gender, aged 18 and above.
The findings were really interesting. Based on the analysis of 311 usuable responses, it was found that most online shoppers are young males who were professionals, managers or had their own businesses. They are less concerned about online security, are competent internet users and shop online because they find it fun, easy and convenient.
The study also revealed some fundamental satisfiers and dis-satisfiers of shopping online. We recommend that E-commerce companies as well as those planning to start e-commerce operations should take into consideration the needs and wants of each consumer group as well as the factors preventing them from involving in buying online.
Those companies should take steps to reduce the fears of the consumers with regards to online shopping. Improving the store reputation and brand image as well as providing specific warranties, would go a long way in improving consumer confidence.
Besides demonstrating that online shopping is convenient, safe, easy and fun, online stores must also offer other incentives and motivations. Thus, besides building consumer confidence, offering more rewarding shopping experience than what is presently available would go a long way in persuading consumers to shop online and to continue doing so in the future.
TAGS: AGBA Conference E-commerce Online Shopping Research
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