Sabre 2/3rd Tiger v3

Just caught the first episode of “The Apprentice, Season Two” tonight on Astro …

The Apprentice (S2)
31-Mar-2005 10:00:00 PM
Eighteen candidates from all walks of life ranging in age between 23 and 37, featuring four Harvard graduates and three folks with degrees from the Wharton School of Finance, plus street entrepreneurs with no college education, will tackle the rigorous business tasks as assigned. Prominent Fortune 500 companies were enlisted to participate in many of the tasks which will test their intelligence, chutzpah and street-smarts. The competition and the boardroom drama will all be taken to the next level during the second season. The candidates will face far more intense tasks and the stakes will be much higher. As the winner of the competition, the second “apprentice” will be granted the dream job of a lifetime with The Trump Organization and a hefty six-figure salary.

… good show, though I hate Trump’s style or mannerism. :-/

• NBC.com: The Apprentice 2 – **Spoiler** – “… is The Apprentice!! December 16, 2004 … But the two final candidates were facing some of their biggest challenges yet …”
• The Apprentice Blog – Season 2 – **Spoiler** – blogs on the weekly episodes, and the Season 3 had started 20 Jan 2005.

Yeah, those sly mysterious smiles always gets me. Ewok says:

I found out I’m a subtle flirt. How I become one, I have no idea. I don’t even know decent pick-up lines and now I know how to flirt? Get out of here!

Links:

• What Type of Flirt Are You? – Tickle’s 16 questions quiz gave me “Sabri, You’re the Subtle Flirt Type! Were you just winking at us? We couldn’t quite tell… In fact, we think it’s fairly safe to say that you’re a Subtle Flirt – you’re a master of the flirting game. You know how to attract attention from anyone, any time. A quick smile, a little game of look-away-and-look-back-again – before long you have the object of your affection wrapped around your little finger. “
• The Art of Flirting – by Joe Vetromile says, “Flirting is the way most people determine whether or not a member of the opposite sex is interested in them.”
• Wikipedia: Flirting – says, “Flirting consists of stylized gestures, language, body language, postures, and physiologic signs”.
• Flirting 101: Eye Contact, Body Language and Mystery – by Kathryn D’Imperio says, “one of the best tactics is to be sure the person knows you are interested”.
• Modern Flirting – Girls Find Old Ways Did Have Their Charms – By Laura Sessions Stepp, Washington Post Staff Writer, Thursday, October 16, 2003.
• The joys and dangers of flirting; how to flirt when to flirt when not to flirt – Ebony, Nov, 2003 by Nikitta A. Foston. “IT can start slowly. A warm smile. The wink of an eye. A subtle glance from across the room.”

The tremors tonight at about 12.35 local time for about 5 minutes, was similar to the one I felt as the 26 Dec 05 one that triggered the tsunami. Just a slight shaking of the bed, and swinging of hanging objects. I hope this wasn’t as disastrous. :-/

• Magnitude 8.2 – NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA, 2005 March 28 16:09:37 UTC – This one I think, since I’m in +0800 time zone.
• Strong earthquake recorded in eastern Indonesia – Sunday, March 27, 2005. 7:05am (AEST). “An earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter Scale has been recorded in the Banda Sea in eastern Indonesia, the Hong Kong Observatory reported … It said it struck at 11:47pm local time on Saturday.” Not this one.

First I heard about this “Perlis Petroleum”. Must be the papers that I read. Perhaps it’s natural gas not petroleum crude oil.

Shin wrote:

… these are “Islamic” and “Hadhari” ? …
Transporting crude oil found in Kelate portion of the Malaysia-Thailand Joint Development Area through pipelines to Perlis via Patani, and pay the pertroleum royalty to Perlis.

Links:

• Islamic or Otherwise, What Are the Parameters ? – Shin, 15 Mar 2005.
• Oil&Gas Journal – published by PennWell, says “Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT) and Petronas reached agreement for a pipeline to transport gas from JDA fields to a terminal in Songkhla province, southern Thailand, and over land to the northern Malaysian state of Perlis. Other Block A-18 gas finds included Bumi, Bulan, Suriya, Senia, Samudra, and Wira.”
• Malaysia’s Fabulous Oil Income: Mystery & Controversy – Kim Quek, 1 Jul 2000.

It seems that successfully managing a difficult boss is a challenge but often feasible. Some ways to deal with difficult bosses are:

1. Understand the problem. – Recognize that, unless your boss is a bully, their behavior is probably due to ignorance.
2. Manage your own negative emotions. – Do not engage in self-defeating behavior such as stonewalling, or counter-attacking your boss. Control your emotions.
3. Talk to the boss. Tell him what you need from him in term of direction, feedback and support. Be polite and focus on your needs. You should discuss your concerns — not confront your boss. Telling the boss he’s a bad boss is counterproductive and won’t help you meet your goals.
4. Try to support the boss. – Ask the boss how you can help him reach his goals. Make sure you listen well and provide the needed assistance. You will be seen as a team player and may be able to advance in the organization with or without your boss.
5. Stand up for yourself. – Supporting your boss isn’t the same as being a doormat. Don’t tolerate being yelled at or otherwise treated badly. If your boss does something unacceptable, say so as directly and unemotionally as possible.
6. Seek a mentor. – With the full knowledge of your current boss, find a mentor from among other managers or more skilled peers, to enlarge your opportunity for experience.
7. Document the problem. – If your boss is a bully, keep a written record of incidents and when they occur. Where possible, have a witness.
8. Ask for a transfer – If you think the problem is that your boss can’t – or won’t – change, and you like your employer and your work, ask for transfer to another department.
9. Look for a new job. – If the situation does not improve, you may need to look for a workplace that does not tolerate bad bosses. Remember, you deserve to have a boss who treats you with respect.

References:

• Dealing With a Bad Boss – by About.com Human Resources.
• Five Ways to Deal With a Bad Boss – by Tag and Catherine Goulet.
• Anxiety at Work – Managing Your Boss – by Marilyn Puder-York.
• Boss quiz – by M.P. Hummingbird. For the boss to self rate on 10 questions. Then to compare it against anonymous rating by the employees.
• Managing Your Manager – by Katherine Spencer Lee, RHIConsulting.
• The Boss – He’s every employee’s worst nightmare. He wasn’t born mean and unscrupulous, he worked hard at it. And succeeded. As for stupidity, well, some things are inborn.
• Pointy Haired Boss – The phrase has acquired a generic usage to refer to incompetent managers.

My personal experience with (an almost) rolling tyre incident was back in early 80s in my student days using an old Nissan hatch back. While driving in the middle of Nottingham city, suddenly the Nissan sprung a regular clunking sound from the front left wheel. As it gets louder, I stopped by the road side. Fearing a major axle failure, universal joint failure or something, I called AA for help, and their mobile van promptly came by. I was a wee bit red in the face, when the AA man diagnosed the clunking as due to poorly tightened wheel nuts. The day before I did change that wheel due to a flat tyre. Lessons learned: tighten the wheel nuts to “feet force” tight, not just “hands force” tight.

• Rolling tyres – Adib, 10 Mar 2005.
• Tommy’s Flat Tire Trauma – and lost wheel nuts.
• Wheel-Check – the loose wheel-nut indicator. A simple visual system for finding loose wheel fasteners.

Mycuppa found his digital SLR to be a useful defence weapon to keep an illegal parking caretaker at bay. I have yet to do the same with my pdaphone cam or my ultra compact digicam that is usually with me.

Since I always ARMED with my D70, so I take a few “live scene” which including KLCC, and I am not hesitate to use flash light. Flash, flash, flash, after 4-5 shot, the leecher shut his mouth up; instead of walking towards the direction where I park my car, he retreat back to this “caretaking-parameter”.

• Nikon D70 Review – April 2004, Phil Askey.
• Nikon D70 Outfit – features and technical specs.

Jeff Ooi wrote about the escalating Nusantara cracker fest this weekend. I hope this spate of websites defacement will not be as bad as feared, and cool heads prevail.
Updated: 13 Mar 2005 1735h

• JKR homepage displaced by nude picture – Jeff Ooi, Sun 13 Mar 2005 1650h. Defacement to www.jkr.gov.my.
• Restraint, appeals Budi Rahardjo, IdCERT – Jeff Ooi, Sat 12 Mar 2005 0718h.
• ‘Nusantara Cracker-fest’ this weekend? – Jeff Ooi, Sat 12 Mar 2005 0448h.
• USM back up! – Jeff Ooi, Sat 12 Mar 2005 0426h.
• MoD website… defenseless? – Jeff Ooi, Sat 12 Mar 2005 0423h.
• Under construction – Suhakam’s website – Jeff Ooi, Fri 11 Mar 2005 1423h.
• Nusantara crack-fest – Jeff Ooi, Fri 11 Mar 2005 0525h.
• 8 ‘defaced’ Malaysian sites – Jeff Ooi, Thu 10 Mar 2005 1339h. Defacements spotted by TV Smith.
• Have some restraint – Jeff Ooi, Thu 10 Mar 2005 1337h. Defacement to www.jatim.go.id/bpm/.
• Appreciate it, whoever you are – Jeff Ooi, Thu 10 Mar 2005 0751h. Defacement to www.inhu.go.id.
• Please do not retaliate – Jeff Ooi, Thu 10 Mar 2005 0635h. Defacement to www.depdagri.go.id.
• Web defacements getting senseless – Jeff Ooi, Wed 9 Mar 2005 2320h. Defacements to www.jckl.org.my, www.tourmalaysia.com.my, www.eraedar.com.my.
• ‘Cracked’ websites captured at Zone-H – Jeff Ooi, Wed 9 Mar 2005 2215h. Defacements to www.sqdc.sabah.gov.my, www.mmu.edu.my, www.undp.org.my, www.bintangsmart.com.my. Niser warning.
• ‘Cracked’ with most profane lingo – Jeff Ooi, Wed 9 Mar 2005 2213h. Defacement www.translation.com.my.
• Perak Museum website ‘cracked’ – Jeff Ooi, Wed 9 Mar 2005 1640h. Defacement to www.museumperak.gov.my.
• Perak Sultan’s website ‘cracked’ – Jeff Ooi, Wed 9 Mar 2005 1550h. Defacement to pejsultanperak.gov.my.
• KLPages’ website taken over – Jeff Ooi, Wed 9 Mar 2005 1545h. Defacements to KLPages.com and mobile2u.com.my.
• Royal Customs website ‘cracked’ – Jeff Ooi, Wed 9 Mar 2005 1359h. Defacement to www.customs.gov.my.
• What have we done after Y2K? – Jeff Ooi, Wed 9 Mar 2005 0611h. About JKR website vulnerability to SQL Injection and trojan left by cracker in the server.
• KTAK website was ‘cracked’ too – Jeff Ooi, Wed 9 Mar 2005 0451h. Defacement to www.ktak.gov.my.
• Suhakam’s link to Article 19 ‘cracked’ – Jeff Ooi, Tue 8 Mar 2005 2224h. Defacement to www.suhakam.org.my.
• JKR website ‘cracked’ again – Jeff Ooi, Tue 8 Mar 2005 2122h. Defacement to www.jkr.gov.my and user login vulnerability.
• Suhakam and JKR sites ‘cracked’ – Jeff Ooi, Tue 8 Mar 2005 1345h. Defacement to www.jkr.gov.my. Admin login page SQL Injection explanation.
• MCMC website defaced – Jeff Ooi, Tue 8 Mar 2005 0816h. Defacement to www.cmc.gov.my.
• USM website ‘cracked’ again – Jeff Ooi, Mon 7 Mar 2005 2301h. Defacement to www.usm.my. Up again on 12 Mar 2005.
• ‘Ganyang Malaysia II’ – Jeff O0i, Mon 7 Mar 2005 1900h. Defacement www.usm.my.