Category: Business

The Freelance Developer’s Dilemma

As many have probably known by now, I do freelance work after office hours and during weekends. In other words, I moonlight. I do all sort of things, from developing websites to managing and installing Linux servers.

I have done so many web development jobs, but I can’t really disclose anything with the fact that I am always hired by web design companies or bigger companies who claims they do everything themselves. Because of this, I have an empty portfolio.

While puffing some cigarettes last weekend I thought of asking my current client, a graphics design company whether it is alright if I list them as my client on my official business website. Something like this:

Clients:

XXXXXX Management System – Company X Sdn. Bhd.

They refused to provide me permission to do so; one of the reasons being that they don’t want to be called an “Ali Baba” company. In my opinion, companies have certain expertise areas and can’t possibly cover all the grounds. Since they require my service to develop the system, they are our client. I don’t intend to put their client on my site, and I am not even asking them to include my company name on their client website.

What I have seen so far with design companies, they have a footer that looks something like this:

Copyright 2009 The Real Client Sdn. Bhd. All rights reserved. Website designed and developed by Company X Sdn. Bhd.

In my opinion, the word developed should not be there because they are not the one who developed the website (in my case). Heck, for the last project I even had to build the CSS from scratch because what they provided were screen shots.

Hey wait, the previous system didn’t have the word developed but the new mock designs include the word. Hmm…

Anyway I can’t escape from feeling unappreciated when this happens, especially with the amount of support I provide, and the technical knowledge I pass to them when they ask even if it’s not related to the work at hand. I know I will still get the money, but similar to regular day job money alone is not enough. Humans require appreciation and credit for what they have done. That’s why I love my current day job so much.

Although “learning how to design” has crossed my mind a thousand times, I felt that I don’t need to step on other people’s toes and it is much better to collaborate. But I do feel that design companies are being too stingy to share the proper credits (and link). Perhaps I should stop thinking like that and get the proper credit I deserve? How do other developers promote their services other than word of mouth?

Note: If you guys from Company X are reading this, I still respect your decision but this is my personal space.

Economy Crisis Hits Malaysia

For the last couple of months I realized that the world economy is heading downwards. Europe and America have had their worst moments, Asia had a taste but Malaysia didn’t really feel anything. To be really honest the first sign I saw was last week when they announced that around 100K people in the manufacturing industry was going to lose their jobs. Maybe I was ignorant enough that I didn’t realize of other related events happening in this country.

Even when that happened, it still has not touched my comfort level. Although I am working in an American company I trust the brand and the business nature enough. I was living my dreams, praying that nothing bad would ever happen.

On Wednesday the morning peace in my office was broken by a rumor that a team is going to be closed and the product they maintain is going to be discontinued. And to think that this was the team I tried to penetrate back in 2007 I was selfish enough to think that I am lucky that I didn’t really join them. At least 6 people left the building in disbelief (exaggeration). Of course they get some kind of compensation but I am not going to talk about it here.

The main reason that made this event scary and were able to shake my comfort wall (not only me!) is the fact that there was no sign, no hint, nothing. It was a sudden move. I have not had the chance to talk to one of them yet but I think they was not warned. Were they?

There is no secure place except if you work with a Government Linked Companies or are a Public Servant. I would like to hear from these people, whether or not they worry about their jobs?

Good luck ex-TRAK I hope you will find better Ruby jobs! We will certainly miss you.

Shop Jusco or Carrefour

I have been doing groceries shopping alone for about 20 days now, and I have always done it at Jusco. However today since I had to pick up my spectacles from Focus Point I went to Carrefour instead. There were several differences between Jusco and Carrefour and to tell you the truth I prefer Jusco.

My personal opinion is that Jusco seems to have a better environment and it’s cleaner. Plus, service is very much better than Carrefour.

When I arrived home today I realized that the cashier scanned the large promotional pack (6 x 4) of Season’s Chrysanthemum tea as separate 6 packs:

carrefour-seasons-pricescan

When it should be at the promotion price of RM12.99 (I wasted RM6.57):

[singlepic=5,600,800]

But I guess it was an honest mistake. I hate it but they are still human. It’s also partially my fault for not checking everything (my excuse is that I was dizzy wearing the new glasses).

Comparing prices I found out that the price of Mamy Poko New Born (pack of 52) differs significantly! Since I bought 3 packs at Carrefour I wasted RM14.76 compared to buying them at Jusco:

[singlepic=4,600,800]

However if you’re a cranberry juice lover like moi, you’ll find that the price is cheaper by RM2.00 in Carrefour. So if you’re looking into buying bulk let’s say for a party you should head to Carrefour:

Carrefour:
Carrefour

Jusco:
Jusco

On Property Purchase and Money3

As some of you might already know I bought a property in August, and the banking procedures were dragged until September where RHB Bank suddenly wished to change the loan amount. My agent, agent S was a 22 year old mobile agent I found through word of mouth. She was not helpful because she didn’t really know what she was selling, and I suspect she is new in the field. Right now I realized how dumb I am not to realize with that age she must be a fresh graduate. (I have nothing against fresh graduates in other fields but I do think experience is critical when it comes to money related matters).

I was afraid that RHB bank will impose the 1% penalty to me because I wanted to cancel the loan (how can I proceed there is not enough loan amount!?) so she gave me her best advice – keep quiet so that the bank will cancel the loan. And I did just that and got off the wagon without having to pay any penalty. I also immediately looked for other options.

Al-Rajhi was fast, they contacted me immediately after I filled in the web form but too bad they currently don’t provide loans for properties under construction although the property was 90% completed back then.

And then I contacted Money3. They were also very fast and with the network they have with banks they were able to assess my loan requirements and made several applications. Agent K was helping me with everything and he was very professional. OCBC Bank approved my loan in September and it was time for signing the offer letter but agent K was not available because he was on paternity leave. Agent J took over and it was overall a pleasurable experience as he handled everything for me.

Everything were excellent until it was time for the MRTA (Mortgage Reducing Term Assurance). He was also an AIA agent and tried to sell the Wholelife package (payable yearly) to me which was quite a good package as I will be able to break even and get some profit after ~15 years. He was stressing on how important to get an insurance otherwise OCBC will not be releasing my funds. If the bank does not release my funds on time there will be interest to pay to the developer. When he first prepared a quote, I had to pay ~RM3600 yearly but when he called me back in early November it was at ~RM4969 so I told him I want to look for other options. He said that is not possible, the bank will block my funds. He never called me back until today.

I made the ultimately correct decision when I decided to call OCBC directly and I was told that OCBC does not have any requirements for me to have the insurance. It was optional! So agent J lied to me in my face. At that moment I lost all my respect for the guy. When OCBC released the funds to the developer it was proof that agent J was lying.

I realize the importance of MRTA and I was planning to take it via OCBC itself or using Prudential but I suddenly went busy. I will do that soon.

Back to the RHB issue, it was such as a waste of time and money. For instance agent S took RM10 for account opening and never returned it (she called me afterward telling me I had to open a current account because of the facility I requested). RHB bank penalized me RM20 for closing the current account earlier than 3 months. The lawyers charged me RM160 for the cancellation. That’s already RM190 there not including my gas cost for traveling. And the worst case of all is that the developer is now charging me with ~RM4280 for the late interest fee (period between when RHB approved my loan until when OCBC released my funds). I have already sent them an appeal to remind them my case and can only hope that they can consider exempting the fees.

That’s it people, my only advice is to find the right people (agents) and even if you find a good one please avoid trusting them 100% as when it comes to money people will try to trick you. In the RHB case I do blame agent S and the bank itself and in the Money3 case I don’t blame Money3 but the agent himself for being an as***le. And if you’re wondering, you don’t pay Money3 for the services. The bank pays them commissions.

What Happened to My Upload Speed?

For quite some time I have been working from home with no difficulties, and I am happy with the speed. Sometimes I even have 3 or 4 terminal service windows open, juggling between them to complete my tasks.

However this morning when I tried to utilize my Nortel IP Softphone 2050 to call my boss for the weekly 1 to 1 meeting the software kept crashing on me. It was the same case when I called my cell as a test.

And so I decided to poke around everything and digging up stats for my home network. Do you know what I found? I found out that my upload speed has been capped to 64kbps. What the hell happened? Rebooting the modem didn’t help.

Here is a screen capture from my AM300 router:

I am too old to rant too much, and I am too tired to give them a call just to have them go through the usual routine of plugging and unplugging.

This is the moment where I really pray that a better service would be introduced. I am truly tired with TMNET’s incompetent service. This is a low class service. And because it’s government linked we have no choice. Two of the Internet giants are both government linked. I am sad.

Starbucks Sizing System

I was watching HBO when one of the short sections in between the movies were aired. It was about the new movie “Role Models”. I have always wondered why Starbucks have the sizing system “Tall” (small), “Grande” (medium), and “Venti” (large). It’s plain weird.

Interestingly Danny Donahue (played by Paul Rudd) mentioned this directly in the movie:

LMFAO. “Congratulations, you’re stupid in 3 languages.”

Cosmic Bowl Sucks

Well, to be really honest the light setting and the loud music is really cool. However I feel that the bowling alley is poorly maintained. Discolored screens and malfunctioning equipment really helped to spoil the mood for a good bowling night.

I was playing in lane 36 on Friday after work and I counted at least 8 times of malfunction. It’s either the pinsetter didn’t place any pins, or the spotting tongs kept slipping one pin off. It sucks and it really spoiled the playing mood.

I don’t recommend Cosmic Bowl Mid Valley either for any company events or casual games.

PayPal in Bahasa Melayu

I recently received an email from PayPal announcing that they now support additional languages. One of them is my native tongue, Bahasa Melayu.

However when I clicked on the Malaysia flag it directs me to the same page as Bahasa Indonesia. Although many part of the Internet has already acknowledged and are well aware that these two languages are different, I am a tad surprised that PayPal is not one of them 🙂

[singlepic=3,420,800]

What Happened to Marché Mövenpick

I went to have lunch at at The Curve on Saturday and I was a bit disappointed by the lack of staff and all the waiting we had to do. While I understand that the system is for you to order and wait they should not have asked people to come back in 5 minutes if we actually have to wait for 20.

I was ordering the 1/2 Roasted Chicken meal and the guy who is attending the stall is also the same guy who cooks the mixed vegetable at the next stall. And the funniest thing of all is while the menu said roasted chicken they are actually reheating it on the grill. Yes, on the grill. So the chicken gets charred and tasted like charcoal, and loses all its moisture. The vegetable is all dried up, and I think that the menu has been changed (many meals have been removed).

The roasted chicken in the same restaurant used to be moist, juicy and the gravy was superb. This time they provided BBQ sauce.

And using the grill also means that it takes a lot longer than the oven. I saw that the oven was switched off so I think this may be a step to cut some cost?

What’s wrong with the restaurant? Are they so affected by the economy that they decided to provide improper food, lousy service, and jeopardize the whole business?

I won’t be visiting this restaurant anytime soon unless anyone really wants to eat something from the menu (the mixed vege and the sauteed mushroom still tastes the same). I’ll just go to Kenny Rogers for roasted chicken.

New Maybank2u Sucks

Yesterday I was trying to pay my overdue house rental that I have forgotten to pay because of the Hari Raya holidays (sorry landlord!). When I load Maybank2u it was fine at a glance, and the new design looks super cool!

However when I tried to login and use the functions I was disappointed. Logging in takes ages, and the pages seems to time out a lot. With the nice design, a simple addition of an AJAX loading image makes the site looks like an AJAX application. It’s most certainly not – Firebug helped me confirm. And for whatever reason the AJAX loading image is displayed on top of text. Go figure.

While navigating through the site I received errors multiple time, at at one time while loading it logged me out because the session has expired.

Yes, I am complaining because I am a regular user of Maybank2u. Please do something?

[UPDATE] Maybank2u has disabled the new interface. Now when you click on the login button you’ll be brought to its old interface. Thanks for that.

Ramadhan: McDonald’s Breakfast Starts at 5.00

I have just returned from a short trip to Taman Equine McDonald’s to look for some light food for sahur. It was exactly 4.22 AM when I arrived at the drive-thru. We wanted to have the big breakfast set but the voice on the display said “during Ramadhan breakfast starts at 5.00 AM”.

I said thanks and left. I just want to warn everyone because I’ve never heard of this special change during Ramadhan. A bit disappointed but it’s OK.

MMU For Sale

Yeah, you heard it right. Multimedia University (MMU) is up for sale, and it’s valued between RM800~900 million. The plan is to raise money for the high-speed broadband (HSBB) project which will cost TM RM1~1.5 billion per year.

Here’s an article from Business Times Online.

From the line While management remains optimistic on the disposal of staff loans, the group is struggling to find a buyer for the university,” the duo noted., it’s now confirmed that MMU is for sale!

I was alerted of this news while reading Amanz.

Sun Acquired MySQL

For those who have been busy or simply missed the news, MySQL has been acquired by Sun Microsystems (last month). There are many speculations on the effect of this acquisition, some good and some bad.

I just hope Sun will preserve MySQL as an open source project and keeps the dual-licensing option. According to Kaj Arnö (MySQL VP of Community Relations) nothing bad will come. However Solaris users will definitely have an advantage as “Solaris has a special position in MySQL’s heart”. 😉 I never really knew that MySQL was initially developed on Solaris!

The thing I remember the most is that when David Axmark (co-founder) was in Malaysia for Fosscon 2003 he mentioned that MySQL is named after Michael “Monty” Widenius’s (co-founder/CTO) daughter My (pronounced “me”) in 1983.

MySQL certainly have a very bright future, and I am actually happy that David and Monty decided not to sell to Oracle when offered in 2006. MÃ¥rten Mickos (CEO) said, “We will be part of a larger company, but it will be called MySQL”. MySQL is here to stay.

This is the press release on MySQL acquisition.

Related:

Oracle Buys Sleepycat Software

Google In Malaysia II

More than a year after I wrote this post: Google In Malaysia, and more than a year after Hanson Toh was appointed as Malaysia Google Consultant, we may actually have a real good news.

I just saw in TV3’s Buletin Utama that Malaysia Prime Minister met Google’s CEO in Switzerland (World Economic Forum) and they do have intention to have a physical presence in Malaysia.

For everyone who have ever dreamed of working for Google (to become a Googler), there might just be a chance soon. A chance is good enough – I doubt that it is going to be very easy to get into Google 🙂

MasterCard/Visa Promotion Fraud Attempt

What great way to start 2008 with a pile of money obtained from other people’s credit cards? I am writing to share my experience today.

I am lucky I am not that stupid although I didn’t realize an obvious bit earlier during the call. By the way the call came is as “Private”

Caller: Is this Mr. Ady Romantika?
Me: Speaking.
Caller: My name is XXXX from MasterCard and Visa customer support. You have been selected to receive a discount card for purchases using your MasterCard and Visa. You will receive up to 30% of discount. The reason we do this is to help make sure our good customers will not be burdened by credit card debts.
Me: I am lucky so please send the discount card to my house. What do you need?
Caller: We need to verify your details
Me: OK, shoot.
Caller: Which bank’s credit card do you use? (At this point I started to be suspicious)
Me: Bank A, Bank B, and Bank C
Caller: Can you give me the expiry dates of each card?
Me: XXYY, XXYY, XXYY (I was dumb)
Caller: OK can you tell me each card is Visa or MasterCard?
Me: MasterCard, Visa, MasterCard.
Caller: OK. For the Bank B card, it starts with XXXX right?
Me: Yes.
Caller: The next number is Y, right? What’s the next number, A or B?
Me: A (I know, dumb again)
Caller: And then? (At this moment I know she is going to ask me the whole credit card number)
Me: Right, so I can’t even authenticate you and you expect me to give me my whole credit card number. Next you’re going to ask me my 3 digit CV2 code?
… She hung up …

You see, even though the caller did know the first digit of my credit card number it does not prove anything. The prefix number of Visa is always 4, and the next 4 digits is assigned to the financial institution issuing the card. It’s no mystery.

In this case I should have realized that she is a fraud when she said she’s from Visa & MasterCard customer support. Those 2 are different organizations, so it’s not logical they share the same customer support.

Notice how she tried to be as technical, procedural, and as patient as possible to get me convinced.

I hope that I didn’t go too far by providing bank names and expiry dates! If anyone from Maxis (my provider) is reading this and is interested to track the call (if possible) I am more than willing to help. Maybe in the telco side private numbers are recorded? And since all phones should be registered it should not be that difficult to lodge a police report?

This kind of people deserves to be awarded some free years at the “big mansion”. Be careful people!!!