Double Celebration

Hi peeps!

I'm so proud to be me....haha...I did it for a second time..berjogging di awal pagi..hehe..this time it was pretty smooth...bermula dengan larian kicik-kicik seawal 6:45am and finished at about 7:20am...I just love the cold morning breeze!

Alright..everyone must be thinking about having a great time on Valentine's Day or Chinese New Year kan...mood 'mengawan' mesti meningkat ni hujung minggu..haha...as for me..I'm not going anywhere and will be at home enjoying my DVDs...hope I could buy couple more DVDs later today (fingers crossed kedai tidak tutup la) I have no plan to go anywhere or attending any event...next Monday, it will be as usual for me...wake up and get ready to go to work (but at least I'd get triple pay on that particular day..hehe..) I'm off on 16th, 19th and 22nd though...I've asked the manager I wanted to work on 16th as sometimes I felt, having a day break in between may affect the working mood the next day..but he insisted no....he wants me to take off day without deducting my balance of holiday...nice one!

Tip for Valentine's Day?

On another event, our CEO came to visit us last week...well, he pops in couple of times because he was supposed to be on 2 weeks holiday in Malaysia with his family....we had a meeting and he updated us with what's happening in UK (economy and business plans) After 4 years with the company I finally met his wife...didn't get the chance when I was in UK last time..

I'd like to wish all the Chinese in Malaysia...especially to those I know a Happy Chinese New Year! To everyone...Happy Valentine's Day...I've heard about this rumour of not wearing panty...so to those yang extreme pervert...lepak-lepak la di tangga yang ada angin-angin..manatau its your lucky day....haha....yang jantan if you want to join-venture with the kempen jangan pakai sansut..it'll be good for pengudaraan di musim panas ini..haha...

Cheers and may you had a great weekend-holidays!

Another pain-in-the-ass "Roll-Out"

This project has been ongoing for the past 2 years...last year I had sacrificed much of my own time staying late (as late as 16 hours working straight with the help of cigarettes) and now it all started again...I was the one who wrote the entire test plans and now I'm using them against the "roll-out" release version that we had planned for this particular customer....still, we've not been given a full contract agreement although we had worked and fulfilled their requirements and this could worth possibly AUS$1.3 million to the company for at least 2 years of contract...

Today,I came in the office....bear in mind my manager is on 2 weeks leave and for that reason our Tech Director become so hyper tracing and reviewing all works performed by me, my manager and one particular senior developer in the UK....to my surprise, mistakes that were not meant to be mine become mine...."missed update" issue...I was pissed off but looking further at the issues, I realized there was no point to be mad at and as the only resident expert in Malaysia that they can rely on at this stage, I responded to the blame by making a phone call and explained the details professionally to the Tech Director...I'm left alone to deal and response to these issues to our Business Dev Manager in Aus, Tech Director and of course our CEO in the loop.....

I couldn't give better answer to the late update of the current "roll-out" version status although I had one particular reason where it was already been planned that another 'hot fix' will be deployed later on Monday (UK time which I was not in the office to confirm the fix) I explained what I've found and what I personally think needing further investigation..thankfully, the Tech Director was alright with my action...well, I'm doing what had been told and I didn't expect this would happened...today I've spent almost an hour documenting my findings and passed it over to them...then opened several more HITS issues as record of faults...the Tech Director has reviewed them and allocated me to work with the senior developer for another 'hot fix' ASAP...

Few minutes ago, I checked my web mail and read the emails received from the Tech Director...I'm a little relieved reading his response to my documented findings...still, there seems to have several HITS issues left not being updated and they are now becoming my next task, tomorrow to investigate then update them accordingly....noting down these tasks and time I might need to spend on investigation, I would not dare to say I would be able to complete them within 8 working hours.....I'm talking about a massive data as big as 9 G byte (SQL) needing investigation to why and where it went wrong to show wrong output..from where those extra outputs coming and to why they're not being output correctly...I provide the inputs and the senior developer would use these inputs for his fixes.....is this another re-play of last year? Challenge comes with prize and hopefully I can get that prize again if I could pull this off well although I now had 4 not-so-good-working-weeks......Thanked God though....

I think I've been complaining since my return.....forgive me....

Soul behind the faces...

These were several pictures taken during the recent visitation by our CEO on the 14th Jan 2009....I was going to post them yesterday but I've forgotten to copy them over to a memory stick yesterday night...

This was taken by me..gatal tangan nampak Tina's kamira di atas meja...I was speaking to him when I took this picture..wahaha...the clock was already 11:50am..presentation was about to start in 5 minutes...

This was also taken by me.......Bani was trying to help him setting up his laptop with the LCD Projector...

A small chat between me and the CEO...haha...kesian CEO inda kana layan..haha..I was busy looking at my to do list ba ni..sorry ah boss..he's a very nice CEO...the kind of person you would not hesitate to ask question although your question might sound stupid..haha...

Haha..then saya layan juga lawak jenaka dia..haha...the room on the right (behind me) is the Manager's room and the one on the left is the Server Room a.k.a my part-time room where I usually spend my time using both PCs inside to do my task...

I was just about to start my 1st round..they were on their 2nd round..huhu..food was nice and delicious but...Revolving Restaurant, Bayview City Hotel is a lot more better....plenty of choice plus the scenic view of Georgetown city...

What was I looking? well there's another restaurant on the 1st floor...I was checking up the atmosphere...surrounding la...

Me (Kadam), Bani (Developer), Azman (New Support) and Ian (New Support)

Team picture..Azman, CEO, Ian, Khatijah who is currently 3 months pregnant (Developer), Tina (Support), Bani and me...huhu..I couldn't hide the tiredness I had that day...

There you go...notice that we have a small office and team? That's why the Company is looking for another bigger office unit as there's a big budget plan for the company to expand further more...with the current office, I don't think it would fit 2 Senior Developers and another 2 Support Staffs in the coming future...

Pity Me - Part II

....the rambling continues...

Came back home from the workshop...I then rest for a couple of minutes with a cigarette in my hand...smoke coming in and out from my lung....made a call to the office to inform that I will be a slightly late..perhaps 10-20 minutes...took a shower, berdandan and left at around 11:21am...it was quite a rush...so riding my "old kapcai" to the max but safe was inevitable...it's normal to me though because it happened several other times..haha...like a "remp-it" wanna be...menyisip sana sini...corner baring..haha...with a standard speed of 80-120kph..I managed to arrive at the office building at 11:34....the distance between my house (Sg. Dua) and the office building (Georgetown) is about 14.7km...I notice this on my return home at night...I watch the meter on mileage of my dashboard...when I entered the office..it was already 11:41 (menunggu lift lah ni yang lama..haha) I saw the CEO was chatting with the father of our Penang Branch Manager who is currently in UK...thanked God...at least the CEO had something other than waiting for my arrival..haha.....waiting their conversation to finish, my colleague requested an assistance to her outstanding issue....I assisted her as requested but as per last week advice..I didn't give a complete answer..I guided her on how to get the answer...she listened and got what she was looking for...good girl...after 10 minutes in the office..the conversation between the CEO and the 'father' has not finished...one of the developer then took the chance to consult my opinion on his current task...I've reviewed his work and discussed the requirement on Monday....so, I just listened and responded with several short questions before I decide what he should do with that.....around 11:48am...the conversation ended..a hand shake to the 'father' (I've met him several times at his house and in our office) then another hand shake to our CEO....apologized to him for me being late....the CEO seemed happy to meet me and we had a small chat before we proceed to the Team Meeting...it was about 11:55am when we started the Team Meeting and lasted for approximately 1 hour and 5 minutes...done with the meeting, we went down to the neighbour hotel for a lunch that was booked since a month ago...whereas I was notified and confirmed (earlier this morning when I was surfing the internet) by the Restaurant Manager that we were going to have an International Buffet instead of Semi Buffet due to several other reservations made by others....unfortunately..I had to stay back in the office whilst the other went down to the restaurant...my colleague told me that one of our Senior Trainer in Aus wanted to speak to me...urgent matter! So, I asked my colleagues to accompany the CEO for a lunch then I made a call to Aus's office to speak to the Senior Trainer....he was worried about the schedule tomorrow...he's flying to another part of Aus to visit our new customer for a brand new installation and setting up their 100 workstations...we discussed the matter and let him know that he only needs to worry about setting up the workstation which is pretty simple and I will do the installation at their server via Remote Desktop tonight....he was OK with that and we were kind of late...this should have been completed before my 2 weeks holiday but for some reason...a colleague in the UK was not actively giving a good response to this issue...no worries though...So, I had another task lining up in my to do list today...I spent about 10m minutes speaking on the phone then went down joining my colleagues....

Whilst taking my food..suddenly a guy came and greeted me...walawei....it was Izwan a.k.a born (the PAKU's vocalist)....he's having a 1 week seminar in that hotel (he's working at Intel in R&D) we chatted and upon returning to our table...his group was just sitting next to my colleagues..hahaha..we adjourned right before 2:00pm because I had scheduled for another appointment for the CEO to meet up with the office unit's owner...we're requesting for a permission for a renovation to be made.... we're expanding and hiring when most companies are sacking their staff or minimizing the cost...that's one of the interesting point he presented in the Team Meeting...the owner was punctual (I've met him) where he came few minutes before 2:15pm...that's what we call attitude! Whilst they were in meeting..I then took the chance to chase several others that I had scheduled to meet our CEO...appointments: 3:00 with a Space Conceptualist for a renovation work, 3:30pm with a representative from a company dealing with Door System Security, 4:15pm with a Support Specialist Candidate which was interviewed in Nov 2008 (the CEO was keen on meeting her for future opportunity) 5:00pm with a Recruitment Company - Kelly's Services (where I met a pretty-beautiful woman...hehe...second time meeting her..I can't stop looking at her...huhu...she's Chinese but looks like Eurasian....her face is a version of Kristin Kreuk except that she's a little more shorter (petite) and whiter..hehe..)

Latest picture of Kristin Kreuk for her role in Street Fighter: The Legend Of Chun Li

All the appointment went well except the appointment at 4:15pm due to 20 minutes late....I just don't know why some people "too-confident" they can reach one place within their predicted time...it's always better to take several matters into consideration before hand....budget your time for the whole journey as well as your unexpected journey...i.e. normal duration from A to B as per experience is 20 minutes...then you should have began your journey 40 -50 minutes earlier instead of 30 minutes earlier...you would have plenty of time to relax if you able to arrive in 20 minutes but in case you can't then you have an extra 20 minutes to cover up your ass....I honestly dislike to wait and queuing!!!!!

There you go....the CEO stayed in the office for a couple more hours...earlier when he was in a meeting with the Kelly's Recruitment company...I had to setup the phone for the next event for him ; a tele-conference between the Tech Director-Penang Manager-Aus Business Dev Manager-CEO......That's pretty easy, I just need to ensure the phone is properly working and run several tele-conferences call...when the CEO was on the phone, me and the new staff were already working in our shift....I knew he's going to monitor the conversation between support and customers, so I advised the new staff to take this chances to show his good performance...well I had to do the same thing la...except that my other task is to monitor the new staff's conversation as well...I'll be his guidance either whilst he's on the phone or off the phone.....the most important thing is I need to ensure he provides correct information...Items on my list: Installation for Aus..Dialing In (UK) for Data Investigation...Dialing In (UK) for Data Migration...Dialing In (Aus) for Data Migration...Test on 2 New Versions...QA on 3 Custom Reports....Supporting Customers...Monitoring and Helping (New Staff) and reply emails...That's pretty pack to me....I couldn't just ignore incoming calls and nor my list....I juggle up between each of them...I've been using 2 or sometimes 3 machines (desktop pcs and laptop) for almost a year.....so last night I used 2 machines to do all these Dialing In stuff still with the slow connection MY-UK...it takes about 2 minutes at least to fully view each page screen...

About 30 minutes before 1:00am..I still have 3 custom reports and Installation for Aus in my list....at 1:00am, my call list has already reached 18 calls.....So it was time for me to wrap up and right after 1:15am, I then spent over an hours doing these items....still I couldn't finish the QA on the 3rd custom report...I decided to blog (my previous post) and went home afterwards..as I found my mind already tired and I was not able to think properly....My Manager called me around 1:30am to inquire the updates in the office with the CEO....noticing my voice and words were getting weaker he apologized for my situation and shared his experience when he was dealing a lot of stuffs years ago where he had to deal almost everything in Penang which I'm currently doing....he then advised me to go home and rest...I said, I will stay a little while until 2:00am but I ended up leaving the office at about 2:45am then reach home at about 3:10am....surfing the internet then sleep....zzZzzZzzZzzZzzZ....

The day before I was planning on coming to office at 9:30am to ensure all the things that had been planned/scheduled going as per planned.....unfortunately, the plan was ruined by the problem I had with my bike....I don't know what would happen if I were to come to the office at 9:30am then stayed there until 1:00am....I might have to sleep in the office due to tiredness...I thought about this though last night..because I really dislike to postpone my work...if there's work to be finished I will try to do it rather than postponing and the next time you realise..there's pile of work lining up to be completed...I've been complaining pula kan since my return...I guess I am...there's another thing that made me smile during the Team Meeting, it was...when the CEO told us that I've been scheduled to come to UK somewhere in March/April 2009...how long? Not pretty sure but in the recent budget meeting, it could be a week or more..according to him la...that sounded pretty good huh but I've heard this kind of talk before...except that this time..it came from the CEO and the word "scheduled" sounds promising..I would be more than happy to come although I already knew the pressure I will be facing working at the HQ during the whole period of my visit.....it is always interesting though to face a new challenge...

Not a smooth week..

Officially, it has been a week after my long holiday trip back to Sabah….

I’ve been very weak this past few days….I just don’t know why and I’ve never really felt this way…Monday to Friday..I woke up early in the morning to go to work…I ended up sleepy and my eyes were like ‘bengkak’ (not enough sleep or perhaps overslept) although I had at least 4-6 hours sleep every night...with the moody feeling and tiredness returning from Sabah…I have to ignore all these to perform to my best the whole week...

Monday Morning…I knew there were plenty of emails to read and follow up but I didn’t expect I would be really busy to catch up so many things….I came in and gone through all the emails…list down what I need to do, follow up and work on….I was shocked to know that there were several issues reported 2 weeks ago had not been resolved yet….what had happened this past 2 weeks whilst I was away? This was affecting my time to catch up things up….this shouldn’t be my responsibility to follow up issue when they should had been resolved before my return!!! My manager called and I took the chance to seek his explanation to why some of these issues were not quickly resolved! Yeah I was kind of pissed…I have the rights to ask why my colleague didn’t resolve them within 2 weeks! Upon hearing my dissatisfaction...my manager then expressed his dissatisfaction towards my colleagues' performance…..Support as well as the Development Team….what the hell they were doing? He then told me that there seems to have lack of responsibility going on whilst I was away…several easy tasks given to Developers gone way beyond delay…issues in Support Department left outstanding due to lack of efforts in problem-solving process…..the Manager then requested if I could follow up and resolve them ASAP….well I couldn’t say NO to that, right?...so I just gave him a simple “I will certainly do…” So there you go….my first day of my returns…gone through emails understanding their issues…progress been made and etc…there were 3 issues left outstanding for 2 weeks to be exact…..I managed to get 1 of the issue resolved on Monday…then the other one on Wednesday and the last one on Thursday….

I had a bad experience with the last one…the one was resolved on Thursday….what would you do if….A says the output should show A…but B says, it (custom module) is not showing output A…then C says it needs to output A but it doesn’t……B and C are customers....I purposely created 2 systems in order to rectify this doubted theory….my finding were; system A supports the theory given by B and system B supports the theory given by A….current issue was as what C had escalated to us….I had to save A, agreed with B and resolve the issue raised by C…I wrote a simple test plan for C and asked a favour to run a quick test on it…C was correct…so I gave C the resolution to the issue and it was resolved…happy? Yes I was but...suddenly, I received another email from the Project Manager (she was included in the email loop) requesting to halt any communication with Support until further notice…the Project Manager then requested my explanation to why it does not output as what C was hoping…why A says it should show A as what C was hoping but it doesn’t (incorrect information from A)…why I need to have 2 systems to rectify this…and lastly what is my next step to this issue…..reading at the email…I quickly felt bad about it…I couldn’t say A was wrong and the custom module was faulty neither…furthermore, the Project Manager was complaining on why I need C to run a quick test for me….I had this kind of experience 3 years ago when I recently joined the company….So, without further a due..I responded with an apology for A as well as myself for all the trouble caused in solving this issue…I could be pissed off when I responded to the email by saying...I would not hesitate to stop my support towards you/your team if I’ve made your confidence and satisfaction at risk....frankly speaking, I was the one putting myself at risk taking over this issue from A (my manager) and whatever A had responded to them earlier was then used by the Project Manager against my finding….the Project Manager then replied by telling me, they’re always happy towards my commitment and support, also wish to continue but the process I’ve took to solve this problem seemed to raise an alarm….huhu...solving a problem would require co-operation between 2 or more sides…if they didn’t work nor co-operate…there could be no end to this matter unless I escalate the issue to our Project Manager who was dealing with this custom module back in early 2008….which would then cause me a trouble for not able to work independently and solve this quite ‘simple but pain in the ass’ issue…with the promise I gave to the Project Manager, I then seek help from our Senior Developer in UK to re-check the coding for this custom module and forwarded the feedback to the Project Manager….and that was it…. The custom module was built not to show A...B was correct!!!! My resolution had saved their ass for submitting their claim report of funding (Government)

That was almost some of the issues I had been dealing with this 1st week of 2009…..how about the Development Team? I spoke and discussed several matters with them and reconfirmed with them that all the time they were ‘missing in action’ was due to the networking problem the Penang office was having….according to them, they were unable to access to the shared network to transfer files…unable to access outlook email and unable to access the CRM/WO database either….worse, the phones connecting UK-MY-OZ were also down several times a day…shared couple of experience I had dealing with this kind of down time and advice to work hard in 2009 as there have plenty of big plan in line for the Penang Office…confidential so I can’t tell..hehe….whilst speaking with them..I was reviewing their Developer Time Sheet report to ensure they were telling the truth...I then discussed the matter with my manager the next morning..he agreed that there have issue with the connection...and wanted me to help my other colleague who should have dealt those support issues....what kind of help he was requesting? I've been kind enough to my colleague...she can call me anytime in any reasonable time to consult my help in any issue she's having..and I've always gave her answers or guidance to her questions...so...the manager was asking me to stop doing that...he advised me to start changing the way I help her by telling her how she can get the information and answer instead of getting it directly from me without any effort via testing or rectification in our software...

Overall, my first week was so full of work load…full of shit from customers…full of shit from colleagues...full of disappointment from the new colleague (the other new colleague is performing well though but not the other guy) Sounded bad for a new year huh….apart from dealing with the Support and Development Team..I was also busy making several appointments for our CEO who’s coming on 14th Jan 2009….we’re going to have a simple but pleasant luncheon that day at our neighbor hotel, Northam Hotel…earlier, I was planning to make a reservation at the Revolving Restaurant, Bayview City Hotel but due to time constraint….I had to cancel that plan and opted for Northam Hotel (we shared the same building) I don’t know what to expect but I’m sure there will be some issues I will need to discuss personally with the CEO…especially about our office, colleague performances and my personal review of current communication between UK-MY……

A brighter day...

TGIF!!!Kehaa..

This whole week was a bit slower than usual for me (lots of chatting though with the manager)..perhaps because I had only couple of things to do in the office..(not quite right)..I was actually quite busy but I managed to complete them within the 8 hours of my paid working hours...at least less than 9 hours..I'm actually trying to manage my time more efficiently..it's not that I don't know how to manage them..but after the recent one-to-one discussion with my Tech Director..I told him that I'm having problem managing my time when the Development Team as well as the Support Team are forcing me to expand my working hours in order to ensure quality and delivery are met....I wasn't complaining the whole idea of more responsibility..it was more likely of seeking some brilliant advices...perhaps it was my mistake and am trying to make a better ride this time...I'm not going to let myself to be sucked away into things that are not my responsibility..especially guiding and advising the 5W1H thingy to developers which they should have already knew 6 months ago.....I was usually disturbed by the fact that they keep on asking almost the same question over and over again which they already had been explained..anyway, things are getting better this week and we have a new Product Delivery Manager in the UK taking over the work load from the Tech Director....

I'm quite happy today..well, it's Friday and why shouldn't I be happy kan..hehe...I spent 2 hours of my time today chatting with my manager..he's flying to UK on 21st Oct so he gave me a brief update what would going to happen in couple of weeks time....the CEO/Founder is visiting as well as conducting another round of interview later on 28th Oct (He's currently in Sydney..I had a chat with him earlier today, in relation to the departure of the new staff on Wed as well as updating me on several crucial plans for the Penang office within 6 - 12 months time....just a brief one)..in case, if he can't make it to the Penang office..the newly appointed Product Delivery Manager will pay us a visit on 3rd Nov..conducting the delayed interview...my manager's mood seemed OK today..we renamed most of our PCs to have the country's state names i.e. mine is Sabah..the other are Penang, Johor, Kedah, Kuala Lumpur etc..if we have another 5 PCs then we're a complete country..huhu..

Last night when I log into my friendster account...whilst checking the message received, I was smiling when looking at one of the sender...although it was a short message but it was so meaningful..to me la not to you..hehe...Oh yes..starting next week..we will be allowed to wear a casual attire only on Friday...the last time I tried to get this done was 2 years ago..especially working at night...Finally huh...actually the manager was trying to implement a similar practice as in the UK office....that's great news! I can wear jeans on Friday!..ya la...maybe you're not excited as me...sebab kamu buli pakai jeans hari-hari....haha...want another great news? I discussed with him if I could implement the idea of developers supporting the Oz's customers....perhaps in an emergency case if the support staff were having some problem and he/she were left with no choice other than taking an emergency leave....he advised me to ask my team..I then asked the team if they think they're able to..they gave us couple of excuses..I then explained (supported and agreed by the manager) that developers in the UK are supporting the customers from time to time especially junior developers in order to enhance their knowledge about the software....left with no choice, they agreed and said they would try...the manager will then assured me that he will escalate the issue to the management later in the next meeting...earlier in the morning, when there were only me and the manager in the office, we had a quick review on their works and characteristic....and I shared with him my concern/worries when we spoke about their knowledge on the software...after a year they had not been that far than the junior developers in UK.......I then came up with that idea (developers should be able to support customers if required) which I think will eventually build up their skills including their communication skill as well..cross finger!!!..if my proposal is being approved...then I may not felt guilt nor worry anymore to apply and enjoy my 25 days of annual leave....

Many thanks to those who have contributed on the making of 50 comments in my previous post....you words and advices will be remembered as well as appreciated..Cheers! Happy Weekend!