HTNet - A Notepad of Tech, Business, Science and Self Improvement

HTNet wishes all Chinese visitors a happy and prosperous lunar new year!

May the year of the dog bring fortune and abundance to us all.

During a period where, in my damn opinion, the religious authority in Malaysia has way too much social and political power, this is a very welcomed move by the government. The Cabinet has ordered Jawi to disband its peep squad.

Hopefully this move will curb the overzealous approach that religious bodies in Malaysia are taking to make sure less Malaysians burn in hell for their sins… nevermind the good intentions behind it anyway. I believe people can take care of themselves just fine without this sort of “assistance”.

I had always wanted to post about this, but time and time again I always forgot. But now that I do… here it goes.

Have you noticed that almost all ATM machines in Malaysia are causing you to waste two key presses everytime you make a withdrawal? Yes, no kidding! Let’s say I want to withdraw RM100 from the ATM machine. Here’s the sequence of events (not including entering the PIN and selecting the “Withdrawal” menu item):

1. Press “1″ : ATM display shows: RM0.01
2. Press “0″ : ATM display shows: RM0.10
3. Press “0″ : ATM display shows: RM1.00
4. Press “0″ : ATM display shows: RM10.0
5. Press “0″ : ATM display shows: RM100.0

The first two steps are completely and utterly unnecessary. It’s not like the ATMs can spit out coins anyway, right? Sure, this sort of redundancy might seem trivial to some. You merely waste roughly one second per withdrawal transaction. However, assuming that you make three withdrawals per week… that’s more than 2.5 hours wasted in a year!

So instead of enjoying an epic movie with a loved one, you’re wasting time keying in redundant digits in front of an ATM… alone :P. Now how sad is that?

I was made aware of Hotlink’s Voice SMS Service through TV advertisements and thought that this is a really cool service! Basically, as its name implies, it’s a short voice message system at an affordable rate. I decided to give it a try over the past few days.

Since this is a fairly new service, I do expect some teething problems… and some where glaringly apparent. Here’s a list of some of the service’s shortcomings that I noticed:

• “Lost” messages. Occasionally I get to hear messages that are obviously not for me. So, for you lovebirds out there, I don’t recommend blurting out saucy things using this service. Your message might be leaked to a third party.
• Inconsistent voice instructions. Sometimes the instructions are in English and sometimes in Malay. I’m just thankful that I actually understand both… but I can see how this inconsistency can be an issue for those who don’t understand one of them.
• There’s no way to identify the sender. The options available after hearing a message are just delete and reply. If I don’t know who the sender is, how can I make a good decision? At least with SMS we can make use of CLI, but there’s no such feature with this service.
• Inconsistent incoming voice SMS notifications. Sometimes you get it, often times you don’t.

If Maxis manages to fix all these issues, I have no doubt that it’ll be one of the most popular services in its stable.

Hmm… I never expected to write another entry regarding Proton, after this piece written in October last year. But recent developments have encouraged me enough to again, give my two cents regarding “Malaysia’s National Car Company”.

First off, how does this affect Malaysians in general? Unless you’ve been spending the last few years meditating alone in a cave, you’d have definitely noticed that Proton have made some really weird business decisions of late. Here’s a recap:

• Selling off Agusta SpA for €1: A company which has world recognisable brands such as Cagiva and MV Agusta.
• Introducing the Proton Chancellor, for which for the rest of the world is very much just an overpriced souped up Waja. Lots of interesting comments under this entry by Paul Tan.
• Attempting to label the butt-ugly Proton Savvy as “My first Lotus”, and (unsuprisingly) getting this response by the Brits.

I find it extremely unbelievable that a company with so much protection from the government can mess up so much. However, this is very much in line with my belief that governments should stay clear of owning/running businesses. The political mind is one of the worst ways of running a business… there’s almost always a “hidden agenda”.

Related posts: Proton-Volkswagen Partnership: no go! by Paul Tan and Proton Shares Slump by MageP.