Asian Tiger

Months and months of saving my hard earned money has finally paid off when I got my very own iPod Video 30GB White.

To sweeten the achievement and to my pleasure, the iPod has performed wonderfully after I had transferred all the songs and videos using iTunes. With this, that’s one gadget off my wishlist.

Quick rundown of the iPod Video 30GB:

• 30GB of space. In actual, 27.8GB because of Windows thingy.
• Battery life is approximately 14 hours. Charging time is 4 hours (full) or 2 hours (80%). Charging is performed via a USB cable attached to your laptop or desktop.
• Weighs in at 136 grams
• Plays music and videos. Extra functions such as photo albums, calendar, to do, games and podcast.

So far, the drawbacks/shortfalls I noticed are:

1. Integration with iTunes. To add and remove songs from your iPod, you need to do it through iTunes. There is no drag and drop function for transferring of files.
2. Wall socket charger (like your mobile phones) is considered an accessory which you need to purchase separately. Available for RM119 at MacStudio (Ikano Power Center).
3. iPod earphones are crappy. No difference with the normal Sony or Philips earphones you can purchase in Tesco. I am going to look for some Koss earbuds.

How many times have you heard the line, “Your employees are your company’s assets“? Practically every leadership course you attend, every motivation course and every team building event keep reminding you that your employees are your assets.

But is the statement true? Does this apply to companies or corporations throughout the world? From my perspective, I would say, it depends. It depends on the nature of the business you are in.

If your business is centered largely on manufacturing, look into automation. Machines can jolly do a lot of things and can easily replace human beings at the factory floor. Yes, I do agree that certain level of human resources are required to run the business but can these people be easily substituted? For example, in a manufacturing environment, the HR manager may be be concerned of products produced by the business but rather she is more concerned of the staffing levels, unions, payroll, etc; essentially making her easily substituted.

Unlike a manufacturing business, the service industry such as IT, BPOs, Auditing and Accounting are extremely dependable on their employees. In these businesses, your products are actually the expertise of your employees. These are your assets. The more you grow them , the more they increase their ability and capabilities; they more money they make you.

In short, depending on the organisation and business you are in, employees play certain level of importance and therefore differing values to the management.

I was texting with my colleague on MSN Messenger earlier today about glitches in a project when our “conversation” argument was abruptly terminated. Since both of us had Yahoo Messenger, we continued our conversation debate there. At the heat of our discussion, our conversation was again terminated due to unknown reasons.
Mumbling to self: must be that nutty IT Engineer we recently engaged.

My colleague then sent me a SMS saying that we were fated not to have a conversation about the project glitches. I was taken aback by that statement. At this day and age, how can we still believe in fate? Come on, get real. I have a saying, “You won’t strike a lottery if you had not bought a ticket”. I proceeded to SMS him back with the following message:

Hehe.. I’m a philosopher now. But that’s how I really feel, With all due respect to the various religions and beliefs. I have always believed that if you put effort into whatever you are doing, you are bound to have some results regardless if it’s a success or failure.

My hypothesis or philosophy “Your destiny is the result of your actions which is also partially influenced by others” supports other thoughts theories as well:

• For every action, there is a reaction ~ Newton’s Third Law
• God helps those who help themselves ~ Anonymous or rather unknown

If you do not lift a finger, don’t expect success to come your way. However, there are also elements of the unknown or variables that may alter your destiny. For example, you intend to buy some groceries at Tesco and was happily driving along when your mobile phone rang. On the other line was your old friend inviting you out for tea. You may:

1. Join your friend for tea
2. Decline the invitation and continue to run your errand

If you chose to join your friend for tea, your destiny to guy groceries at Tesco was a failure because your actions have been influenced by your old friend. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that you should not have tea with friends. This is just an example.

Hope you enjoyed this post.