Eugene lamented about how the work from office is starting to intrude his private life.

That’s why I sometimes think if it’s a good idea at all to have a device that allows me to check my emails everywhere I go (Blackberries, iPhones and the wireless broadband-enabled phones).

Photo courtesy of Keir Ansell

It’s great to know that you are able to access to your emails and tasks with the mobility granted by these devices, but on the flip side, instead of letting you controlling your life better, I think having such devices could mess up the priorities in life.

It’s like TV, where children learn more from the programmes in the Idiot Box than from their own parents. These new-found mobility can be even more disruptive.

I think the key is to be selective of the technology you use. The fact that scientists are able to genetically modify the DNA of crops doesn’t mean that we should embrace such technology.

So, if your boss gives you a Blackberry as a birthday present, think twice before accepting it ;-)

A World War II car sharing propaganda poster.

I’ve always wanted to develop a car pooling platform. There are a few reasons why car pooling would work very well in Malaysia:

1) Most city people are getting quite environmental conscious.

2) Car pooling is way better than taking an express bus or train.

3) Depending on who you are hitching the ride with and the conditions attached with the ride, car pooling usually delivers you to your doorstep using the least amount of time. Express buses, ironically, usually stops for long ‘tea-breaks’ along their journeys which makes the traveling much more unbearable that it already is.

4) You can collect a little fee from each passengers to share the cost of traveling.

5) You can have someone to talk to during the entire trip. Hence car pooling could be a very effective socializing tool.

Yet, there are a few reasons why car pooling might not work:

1) Hitching a ride with a stranger, especially in a crime-infested nation like Malaysia is an absolute no-no. So, if you can only car pool with someone you know, the destinations and trips available would be severely limited.

2) Most car pooling trips are usually one-way trips. So, it’s very likely that you would still need to take an express bus on your way back to your original destination. Unless, of course, car pooling becomes a major part of the motoring culture in Malaysia.

3) If you are stuck with an ‘unpleasant’ passenger for the entire trip, say from Johor Bahru all the way to Penang (about a thousand kilometres), you would wish you’d taken the bus instead.

So, while I was pondering the feasibility of an online car pooling platform for Malaysians, I decided to do some quick research on existing online car pooling systems. Ah…the wonders of the Internet, and it wasn’t long before I stumble upon a car pooling system that is very close to what I have in mind. It is linked to Google Map’s API, which is a great feature and it automatically allows me to publish my rides to people I personally know on Facebook (via the Facebook Connect API). The car sharing tool that can do this right away is Zimride.

Now, you can start offering your ride too, and make some pocket money! Oh, in case you are wondering, Zimride did not pay me for this article ;-)

Been cleaning and battling the irritating IFRAME virus on a few blogs for the past few days. If you have been trying to access Meshio.com and was warned by your anti-virus program that Meshio.com is trying to infect your computer with a virus, the bad news is that it’s a valid threat, but rest assure that I am once again being sucked into the role of a system administrator doing my best to get rid of the virus.

Photo by Hello Naomi

For the record, I have cleaned the virus for the 2nd time on Meshio.com and for other blogs I’m running, up to as many as 5 times. So, do not be surprise to find Meshio.com compromised again. Sigh…the more doors you have, the higher the risk. Just when I thought I have closed up all the ‘doors’, the malware programs seems to be able to discover a new one and start creating a mess in the system once again. From the discussion with other webmasters, it seems that the most attractive entry points were the FTP client, a tool which is used to transfer files from your computer into the hosting server. If you think that your site has been compromised, here are some very relevant advice from Adrian on how you can up your defense against these malwares.

Change all FTP pwd immediately.

Download the whole site to hdd. do a scan using a special written files, remove it all infected files. replace it.

Do another scan on your website using this:… Read More

http://unmaskparasites.com/

Make sure all those who has FTP access to it, they are equipped with antivirus and updated virus db. Then only give them the new FTP pwd.

PS: if want the file i can ask my team engineer to email to you, we write in php.

And here’s another short anti-malware guide from Pin…

You might also like to take the following preventive measures to protect your website from malware:

1. Upgrade your Adobe Reader to the latest version
2. Install anti-virus software like Malwarebytes and Comodo
3. Use SFTP instead of FTP
4. Remove all malicious coding from your website
5. Upgrade to latest WordPress if you have a self-hosted Blog
6. Change your FTP password

I just cannot think of a really good reason why would anyone spend their leisure time engineering malicious programs to cut down the productivity of people they don’t even know, except for some boost to their ego.

Maybe there is really something sinister going on behind all these virus attacks after all.

There’s just so much similarity between these online viruses and the real-life ones (e.g. H1N1), all the anti-viral companies makes a huge profits from these ‘engineered’ outbreaks! The fear that was created by real-life viral pandemics would have easily justified policymakers all around the world to start mass vaccination on their citizens, in the name of containing the spread of the disease. Similarly, in the virtual world, anti-virus companies are laughing their ways to the banks each time an effective virus was set loose and infected millions of people’s computers worldwide.

Just think about it, why do the car manufacturers continue to churn out automobiles fueled by cartel-controlled petrol? There are already so many other alternatives available to replace petrol. Also, look at the disaster created by corporations that provided genetically-modified crops to Indian farmers, where the farmers are resorting to suicide due to their failing crops and their inability to pay the debts owing to these corporations which promised them lucrative yields. It’s a vicious and very profitable business model, a prevalent feature in any capitalistic economies.

I am all for businesses that are out to make profit. That’s the whole reason businesses are for anyway, but a business should never make profit by taking advantage of others.

If you’ve been following my tweets lately, you might have noticed that I’ve been practicing in Bukit Kiara for the upcoming KL Marathon. Bukit Kiara is in fact quite a popular hangout place for runners and mountain bikers. It’s one of the very few green lungs left in Klang Valley, without having to drive too far out.

If you have been to the Bukit Kiara’s jog trail, you would realize that the track is rather challenging. The uphill sections can be quite a tough stretch and so steep that you might have to ‘walk it out’ if you haven’t been practicing regularly.

So, each time I encounter the uphill stretches, I would be forced to take smaller paces and gear down to a slower speed to ‘conquer’ the slopes. Just a few days back, I tried another technique which allows me to maintain my speed and pace- by running zig-zag up the slope. Although this technique lengthen the distance needed to cover the slope, it somehow allowed me to better pace myself and reduce the strain on the leg muscles. And it’s also at that point that I realize how similar this technique is to the way we approach the goals we set in other aspects of our lives.

When we’ve decided on a challenging goal that don’t seem so achievable, we can in fact tackle it by going around the obstacle, cutting it down to smaller goals and solving these smaller goals step by step. This not only help us to take positive action towards our goal it also help us to build the momentum to tackle the bigger challenges later on. ‘Going around’ can be easily mistaken as ‘sidetracking’ the goal, as the latter would mean the actions we take brings us farther away from our goals, a distraction of sort.

So, the next time you’re faced with an insurmountable obstacle, do not be paralyzed by its intimidating pressure. By using some analytical skills, experience and a little imagination to break down the obstacle, you might be surprised at what seems to be a cul de sac could simply be turned into an opportunity.

To quote Henry Ford, “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.”

A friend just shared with me how KWSP has accidentally omitted the deductions of her company’s EPF contributions. Although she’d submitted the employees’ KWSP contribution, the contribution was not stated in the latest KWSP statement, and a check with the KWSP authority reveals that there was a ‘technical glitch’ in the system that has made the contribution not registered in the system, and hence not printed on the statement. She was then told to furnish the necessary ‘evidence’ so that KWSP can rectify the error.

My friend was observant enough to have noticed the discrepancy. When she announced to all the other staff members who’d also received their latest EPF statements, none of them was aware of the omission. What if she’d not noticed the discrepancy? And what if didn’t only happen to her company?

I am not trying to downplay the KWSP’s professionalism, but such careless mistakes couldn’t have happened at a worse times, where the government is seen to be in a dire need of liquid cash (recent Sukuk Simpanan Rakyat launch, new units for ASM/ASW 2020, sharp rally in the local stock market).

Make sure you’ve checked, double-checked and triple-checked yours.

Reader Twinbearer made the following changes to one of the most downloaded forms on Meshio.com:

1. address (both can just be typed in)
2. selection of dates from calendar
3. particulars of card holders (name, card no, card type, expiry)
4. add the print button (visible on the form, but do not appear when printed)

Here’s the PDF web preview:

To harness the ‘full power’ of this form, download this form onto your computer and open it with Acrobat Reader, since most of the new features added by Twinbearer doesn’t work on the web preview.