I finally found they store the annual reports

I am so happy that get to access the annual reports of the listed companies in Malaysia. Now, I will be able to do some research on my own to determine the value of a company regardless of the media's judgment. However, I still stand by my previous comment that the SC should really setup a form where the companies are required to fill up. Although many of the annual reports may have fulfilled the requirements to disclose a company's structure, board of directors and etc. , some investors may want to review the basic operations of a company without going through the various presentation that is often present in a financial statement.

Malaysia needs a central depository for companay's financial statements

As the title, Malaysia really needs to have a central depository for online statements. I am not sure that the SC is doing anything "E" about the financial situation of a company but I think the listed companies should provide their financial statements online in order to attract the interests of foreign investors who are interested in their financial standings. However, after doing some Google search and checking out the Bursa Malaysia's website, I can hardly find a place that allows people to find an archive of Malaysian public listed companies' annual report. This is crucial for an investor who does not wish to speculate or to invest with his so called "sixth sense" who wished to do some thorough analysis on their financial statements. Maybe Malaysia should start something like the Form 10K that the SEC in America is doing right now whereby all public listed companies are required to fill up the Form 10K every year to provide a snapshot on their business to the American public and the world. I believe that in order for Malaysia's financial market to move up the next level, they should really consider implementing a system that requires the companies to submit their information to a central department where the public will be able to gain access to these information.

Survival of the Fittest

We have seen many examples in the past. During the rural ages, we had artisans who pride themselves by making chairs with their own unique skillsets. However, when there is an Industrial revolution, many artisans were forced to become employee 2001 in the many factories that has made the artisan's work as part of a huge production line. I have a vision. I believe the same thing may apply to IT services or programming. If one's work does not improve or innovate in a way, it will fall into the same path as the artisans in the 18th century-19th century. In one of the business 2.0 magazines, it mentions that intelligent soft is developing a smart software that is able to recreate software on its own. In another words, the software is trying to remove the error prone human element from software programming itself. I believe this is a possibility and this is bound to happen. If programmers are not able to figure out how to make themselves as unique as possible, they will really need to prepare themselves before it is too late for them and they will have to become the employee number 2001 to feed their family.

Step class at Fitness First

The youtube video above is just to give you a few on what step is like. Well, today, I went on to try out the intermediate step class at my gym. It was certainly a different feel after watching a number of classes over the past two months. It is something like the first time one person step on the stage to do something. The feeling was definitely unique because the group exercise gym was actually transparent.

Anyways, I went in and it was definitely one of the funnest moment in my life. Well, first of all, I have no idea about step before I take the class, I just went in the class to checkout what the class is all about and it definitely involves a good coordination of steps. Everyone was required to grab a piece of aerobic board and he/she are required to perform step moves on or around that board.

For my first try, I feel like I was Napoleon when he was getting his ass kicked by the Russians at Russia or by the Brits at Waterloo. I was definitely out of step and I am definitely not up to the speed of the instructor.
After the class, I think i only get one of the "Double D" move that the teacher showed us before we tried to combine everything at the end of the class. All I can say is, I definitely want to try the class out again to see if I can become better although I am sure that dancing with good and eye coordination is definitely not my thing.

Abbreviation can be interepreted in many ways!!

An Abbreviation is a way that people would rather use the first letter of a number of words to represent an organization or an item. However, I came across a few abbreviation recently in the news and I think these abbreviation can actually lead to multiple meanings it definitely needs to be reviewed by the many experts in the world:

For example:

K-economy- should be known as Knowledge economy but coincidentally it can also be used for Korridor Economy because of the first letter K.

U.S.A- widely accepted as the United States of America can also be used to represent the United States of Africa if the Africans do one day united and decided to combine the many divided African nations into one big country.

I joined Facebook

I am not a big user of social websites because I don't really get what they do. People have been saying that it allows user to create their personal profile online and they will be able to meet up with more new people. Honestly, I think there is still more room for improvements for a social website. For example, sometimes I have this feeling that the interface can be organized in a more user friendly way. Anyways, since I am now a facebook user, I will try to checkout what is on and what can be improved at the moment.

A question about the standard of Annual Reports in Malaysia

After reading a number of Annual reports, I have observed a few shortcomings and I hope the sc can do something to recommend some changes on these important financial statements since it is the one and only one source of financial information that the investor received from their investment directly.

Firstly, I hope they will be able to list the properties or give some description on the properties that is owned as an asset to the company. Of course, a company may argue that they may owned a list of properties that may or may not fit on a book. However, with the soft copies available, I am sure the investors have the right to know more about these assets that may contribute to the companies actual book value.

Secondly, I am sure the investors will be more than happy to know more about the director's renumeration allocation to each individual directors. The investors have the right to know more about the compensation that has been awarded to each director since it is hard to justify the possible huge payments for a managing director if the company if performing badly.

Thirdly, the annual statements of a company should really give a clear description of a company/ a group's overall operation since it is so hard to know what a company is doing by reading its confusing annual statement. With a clear knowledge of a company's operation, investors will have a clear picture on the various business operations that a company do.

Fourthly, the sc should really require a company to submit a soft copy of their annual statements to a central archive. It will certainly benefit the company and the market in the long run since investors, both local and foreign, will be able to locate the annual report from one central source.

An overcrowded gym class and Some good work for the KL city council

Firstly, some good words should be put on for the Kuala Lumpur city council for their decision to raise the fines for drivers who parked their car in the restricted areas or double parked in Kuala Lumpur. This is, by far, one of the most efficient way to discourage people from parking their car regardless of other fellow drivers. A good thing is that they raised the fines to a level that people are going to pay attention since their previous fines were way below the worries of these irresponsible drivers. Now, business owners should really pay attention to the location of their business premises because people are going to think twice before parking their car on the yellow line. They should really rethink the viability of setting up a business in a commercial area without sufficient amount of parking spaces. In addition, I hope that future developers should really have a good blueprint on their future projects which includes an ample supply of public parking spaces.

Secondly, with no relations to the parking issue, I went to gym today. We always had like a body combat class at around 6:50 ish at Fitness First that I have yet to join. Many pretty ladies are actually a big fan of the class but something has yet to allow me to join this only session for the day and this is the limited amounted of floorspace that is dedicated to the people who are joining the session. Imagine that people in the session are trying to simulate a kick in a limited amount of space. I am sure it will be so funny to watch people got kicked on the one side and in return they kicked another fellow gym member with their powerful karate kick on the other side. It will be like a huge domino which everyone in the class except the instructor will get hurt. I am sure that will a good "body combat". The gym should really do a better job at restricting the amount of people in a class. Anyways, I will wait until the number of people falls before I join in that class.

Oil prices are heads up but never comes down

Like many optimists out is the market, they believe that the now surging oil prices will eventually adjust to its reasonable price at $60-$70 a barrel. However, I hope we better have a good backup plan because I am sure if the adjustment do happen, it will be a mirage adjustment before a higher surge in gas prices. Gas is a limited resources that we have been depending on for decades and it has allow us human beings to live our daily lives to the fullest. However, unlike the many claims that we have billions of barrels of gasoline lying under the earth's crust/ seabed waiting for oil companies to to explore, we are definitely heading towards an energy disaster. Like for example, in the 1970's, we have this great oil crisis in the U.S and after the great Iraqi war, we were able to get ample supply of gas to fund our luxury life. In the new century, we were thrown into the same situation before the U.S step into the middle east to establish "new democracy". I will like to take this opportunity to encourage big oil companies to put more of their budgets into developing new sources of energy because if they are able to develop a new source of energy that the world community will accept, they will not only control now, they will be able to expand their wealth in a great way in the future!!

"优柔寡断"==Indecisive

The four chinese words that mean Indecisive in English seems to define my personality for the past 4 years. It seems that I have been indecisive on my life, my future and my personal relationship.

Take my life for example, I was able to pursue a college education in the states but I was indecisive at the end of my college education. I tried hard to stay back in the US in order to escape from my own family matters but unfortunately it didn't work out that well.

For my future, I thought that working as an IT guy will eventually lead me to where I want to be one day but it does not seemed to be possible to stick on this route like many investor said we all need to diversify in order to minimize the risk. I guess this is what I am planning to do right now. I am trying to learn more about investment because it may not lead me "billion dollar" dream but it will eventually help me reach the level of financial security that many employers fail to provide today.

Lastly, my relationship. I was fortunate to meet with a few beautiful and great ladies while I was in college. Firstly, I was able to meet this floor leader, Kylie, in the dorms but I was not able to talk to her and get to know her better since I didn't have the gut by then. I hope I got her name right. Then, I met up with this Japanese friend of mine. She really made me learned a lot of things about how to pursue a relationship. For example, I tried my best to help her out in college but when I think about it today, I should all really do it since we are all International students and International students are suppose to help one another. Maybe I am just a guy who is just too easy to have a crush on someone. Thirdly, I had another crush on a Japanese schoolmate of mine. Until today, I still feel for her. She was the first girl that I really asked out for dinner mano o mano. I am not sure if I can still call it a date but I really like her both as an individual and as a unique person. I guess there are many things that happened when there was a lack of communication. I haven't talked to her since I last called on March 07. Finally, there was this great Starbucks girl, Tifanny who was a great barista since I really enjoyed the unsweetened black tea lemonade that she made for me when I got my drink off Starbucks at Stonestown. Let's say that I got a priority line when I normally gott a drink from Starbucks then. I could have asked her out but I guess I was too focus on Kyoko then. Tifanny was definitely a great girl and I am sure she is one of the cheerful human beings that you can find on this earth.

Like Steve Jobs said in his podcast, you won't be able connect the dots ahead of you. When you look back at the dots behind you, you will certainly be able to connect them in someways. Although I have many regrets in my life, but I have certainly grew a lot from my stay in America. I got to know some people who are really my buddies. Last but not least, I really get to know my family members who have supported me over the few years.

A quick review on "Reunion" Chinese Restaurant

Today, we were planning to go to Hideki for their weekend/holiday Japanese buffet lunch. However, the restaurant was closed down for renovation. As a result, we went to Bangsar Village to look for some other options. As a result, we went to try out this new Chinese restaurant called "Reunion" at Bangsar Village II. The place is new. I think they opened it like a few days ago. When we first went in to the place, it gave a fancy restaurant impression on me. Well, we all know that Bangsar is a special place and people are always looking for that extra bit on their eatery. Well, back to the story. The furnishing of the restaurant was simple and great. I guess "Simple" is the thing for interior designers today. It was certainly a different feel especially when you are an Asian walking into a Chinese restaurant. After we got our table, we ordered our food. My mom got a Roast duck rice while I got an XO sauce seafood fried rice. In addition, we got a fried white fish for a side dish. With all the great simple interior design, the food that we got cannot match the ones that you can get here in Asia. Come on, we are not in a foreign land. We are in Malaysia. The roast duck rice and the seafood fried rice was good but the side dish was overcooked. The waiter was kind enough to ask the chef to make us another plate of the side dish when we told him that it was overdone. However, I guess it takes more than twice to make it eatable. There are two words that I can give to this new restaurant, "Food Improvement" or else. In order to make it into the food business in this world, food business providers will all need to be able to provide a high quality food for their customers. Without this basic requirement, I doubt they will be able to last any longer even if they are in Malaysia.

A Happy belated Birthday to my cousin Elizabeth

Sorry, Elizabeth for forgetting your birthday on September 9th. I will to wish you a Happy Birthday and I hope I can see you again before leaving for Australia in February 08.

Wii Sports is cool

Man, I sure wish my old pal Jeremy was here. I would have kicked his ass on Wii sports. (Just Kidding, Jeremy) Anyways, Wii sports is a wii game title that includes tennis, baseball, bowling, golf and boxing. The wii remote is used as the only input device for these games. Just imagine, you are using the remote as a baseball bat while you are playing the batter in the baseball section. Get the picture? There is one word that I can say about this title, "Engaging". It will definitely be fun if you are playing this game with a party of friends. The game is included with the US Wii console while you need to purchase it separately if you happen to purchase your wii from outside of America.

Hatsdown to Nintendo

My mom got me a Nintendo wii from Hong Kong. I will like take this opportunity to thank my Hong Kong cousins for helping me to get the console since the Nintendo Wii is not officially launched in Hong Kong yet and one really needs to know his/her way to get himself/herself a wii in Hong Kong. Anyhow, I did a quick testing on Nintendo's latest offering. Like many consoles in the past, you need to plug in a AV cable and power cable into the console before turning it on. However, for the wii, there is one more thing that you will need to plug in before you begin your wii experience and that, my friend, is the sensor remote. The sensor remote is the device that console pick up the position of the wireless wii remote controller. The unique thing about the wii remote is the is able to pick up the user's wii remote in a certain radius and hence it allows the software designers to create games that allows the user to really get involve in a game. For example, Wii sport is a game compilation of simple sports game like Tennis, Baseball, bowling, golf and boxing. In the Baseball section of Wii sport, the user can play the batter or the pitcher. While the user is playing as the batter, the user is asked to hold the wiimote like a regular baseball bat and they are asked to swing at the right time in order to send a "barry-bond" out the stadium. Anyways, this is definitely fun but tiring at the same time. However, Nintendo has really done something new this time because I am feeling kinda sick of the similar sequels that is released by many game publishers on many consoles and the pc. I hope they can look at Nintendo as an example and look at improving the gamer's experience as a priority instead of making the same old thing once more.

We should use podcasts to its fullest

Podcasts are mp3 files which are tagged with a RSS feed in order to help the user's music download manager update the latest iteration of a podcast series at an appropriate time. Like many other great nations in the world, Malaysia has yet to fully make use of podcasts when it is out for like 3-4 years. Many great schools in the world is now providing free online lectures to people in the world and young people in Malaysia should take advantage of these free podcasts and get a snippet on how a lecture is conducted in a world class schools.

Tech stocks and their real value

Tech stocks are like pharmaceutical stocks, they require a lot of R & D expenses before it will be able to produce a product that may or may not suit the needs of th market. As a result, speculation seems to be one of the way that these companies used to fund their research. However, I seemed to see a similar trend in property developer stocks. Many of these companies prefer to hype up their holdings in order to gain the attention of the stockholders in order to encourage the ignorant shareholders to speculate their stocks without doing more intelligent thinking and deeper study on a company.

A not so special Apple Ipod release event

In 2006, I have been waiting for the touch wheel interface Ipod. Today, Apple has officially released the Ipod touch. However, it is just a stripped down version of the Iphone. Well, maybe you can still use voip services unless the mic has been removed from the the new ipod too. Anyways, like many other reviews, I think the 8 gb/ 16 gb capacity for the Ipod Touch is definitely not enough for me after I was spoiled by my one year old 60 gb Video Ipod. I guess the price of the 32gb/64gb nanoflash memory is still pricey for Apple to include it into their sexy Ipod Touch. I guess we will have to wait for the next Apple Announcement.

Transmile-A potential opportunity for bargain hunters

This is a not a recommendation to buy but it is a well worth opportunity to do a case study on a current blue chip company that is out of favor. Unfortunately, my expertise is not enough for me to analyze the business behind transmile's operatives. Currently, the only thing that I know about their business is that they are a serious logistics carrier that owns a potential profitable line from Shanghai to LA and if they are able to secure enough contracts with major clients such as manufacturers in China, they will be able to make a profit. At the moment, I knew that DHL has signed up for their services until a certain future date. This route could be the hidden gem behind this out of favor company. However, I am still trying to understand the financial statements that they are revising after their admitted their loss in 2005. It is yet to know what caused the loss to this company. The cost mainly comes from the operating expenses and we will have to look deep into their financial statements to find out what really went wrong before jumping right into this boat!!

Basically the main risks of a logistics companies are fuel prices and the number of contracts that they are able to secure in a timely manner. In addition, they will have to be able to secure a profitable flight route which happened to serve the right booming economy at the right time. For example routes from Vietnam, China to consumer countries like North America and Europe are said to be profitable. Last but not least, they will need to have a reasonable maintainance crew to help upkeep their fleet. As long as they are good at doing these few things right, they will be able to maintain and to grow as in this competitive logistics business.

I think we should learn to think with integrity instead of being a drone

Today, I went for an interview at one of the Big Fours. I talked to one of the high level personnel. As usual, we went through some boring conversation. At the end of the interview, I shot this question about the role and the responsibility of an Audit firm in preparing the financial statement of a public listed company. I was eager to ask this question because I have been reading some basic investing books and, in these books, they stress that the financial statement is one of the most important documents that shows the financial status of the company at one point. My interviewer gave an interesting explanation of the audit firm role to me and he was giving a shot that I was having too much time to think about these issues. I have a feel that this certain personnel is not really taking this problem that seriously. In his explanation, he was saying that there are a lot of complications that someone will have to take into account for the many accounting scandals in this world and we will have to rely on the good people that has good business integrity and business social responsibility to keep the business world to work properly and efficiently. I can't help to think this is more of a general observation but it does not provide a solution to what we can do to stop and to make it harder for these evil doers from making a profit by making a fool out of their shareholders. Before we talk about the solution, we should first look at the potential cons of the discovery of a corrupted company in a country. If a company was to be reported and proved to be committing an accounting fraud, it will create a huge backlash to the economy of a country by affecting the confidence of potential investors into the country's economy. In order to solve this problem, we should really have tougher rules and regulations for the listing companies because they are basically owned by the public. Currently, the punishment is not really fitting the white collar crimes in Malaysia. I believe the system should be overhauled partially. Different important watchdog organizations should really keep a close eye on the activity of the listed companies.

女人唔易做 review

I just finished watching this TVB drama over the weekend. This drama is actually not that bad. It talks about the many frustrations that working women in Hong Kong faced today. In addition, it also talks about issues such as "age is not a main concern in a relationship" in the story. Well, while watching the drama, the main female character definitely reminded me about the girl that I like in college. She was always kind but funny at all times. I hope she is currently doing well with her life in Osaka. Anyways, I have included a trailer of the drama below. Check it out and your will definitely love it.

La Femme Desperado - 女人唔易做 (Trailer)

Monkey Majik again

"Monkey Majik" is a Japanese group that I am currently playing on my Ipod. Although I don' t understand what they are singing, but their music is cool. It sounds great. I have included a couple music videos below. These two videos are two of my favorite songs from their latest album.

MONKEY MAJIK+SEAMO - 卒業、そして未来へ。

MONKEY MAJIK + m-flo - Picture Perfect

Done with MGS2

Man, this game is definitely insane. It makes you feel like you are playing a game within a game. Well, it is like close to the end of the story, this character that you play "Raiden", was said to be manipulated by some sort of an advance AI program. At that point of the time, the AI program was corrupted and as a result, the program started to throw random "Game Over" screens on me.
I must say, Hideo Kojima put a lot of his tricks in this game. Although I played this game in 2007 and the game was actually produced in 2001-2002. I must say this series is definitely one of the unique series in games these days.

Great Game for a poor gamer

Well, I have been playing an old time PS2 classic Metal Gear Solid 2. I have never been a big fan of the metal gear solid series. Firstly, I was done playing with Metal Gear Solid 3. Honestly, I will not be able to finish the game without a guide. The game was fantastic and it definitely has a lot of depth. However, I guess I am more of a casual gamer. In other words, I am not a big shoot'em up fan. Like its prequel game, Metal Gear Solid 2 definitely has one deep story. Its graphics although dated, it is still one of its class in the market. No one will be able to reproduce such a game except Hideo Kojima, the producer of the series. I definitely admire the Japanese such as Kojima and Shigeru Miyamoto for their creativity and their willingness to try create a product that involves the characters that has a western cultural background. Well, this is definitely not an easy feet to achieve because I have yet to see similar characteristics in other Asian people. This is not a diss to other Asian people since I am Asian and my ethnicity is Chinese. I just hope that people in Asia will take the opportunity to learn and to adopt from the best in the world in order to achieve not only the same but better result than their Japanese brethren.