My Internet Throwback

Back to the early days of the internet in Malaysia, way back in the late 90's, internet is mostly used to get information from the web. Saya masih ingat ketika itu saya baru berjinak dengan internet. Di rumah sewa bujang kami, saya masukkan line telefon dan kemudian subscribe perkhidmatan TM Net. Kena dial guna modem baru dapat connect ke internet. Nak dial kena buka PC dan guna software khas untuk dial. Nombor yang di dial ketika itu ialah 1515 untuk TM Net. Masukkan username dan password. Tapi nak dapat sambungan pun satu hal juga. Kalau siang mudah. Bila malam menjelma, lagi-lagi lepas pukul 8.30 malam hinggalah sekitar jam 10 malam, amatlah sukar nak dapatkan connection. Kadangkala berlarutan kesukarannya hingga tengah malam. 

Dah dapat connection bukan bererti ia kekal selamanya, kadangkala terputus di tengah jalan dan nak dapatkan kembali agak sukar. Itu semua coretan nak dapatkan talian internet. Data pada waktu itu unlimited. Cuma memang tiada pun sebarang data yang besar-besar seperti sekarang. No streaming services, no Youtube. Video pun sangat jarang di distribute di dalam internet. Yang banyak adalah gambar jpeg, bitmap dan gif. Kemudian datang pula animated gif, iaitu gambar yang boleh gerak-gerak. Zaman ni di Malaysia kebanyakan orang masih guna VCD, DVD tak ramai lagi guna.

I remember when I first connect to the internet, saya guna Yahoo sebagai browser. Memang kagum masa tu, dapat tengok browser Yahoo sahaja pun dah rasa cukup hebat. Lepas-lepas tu baru cuba alternatif browser online lain seperti Netscape (which I ended up using the most) dan Opera. 

Our only social media masa zaman tu ialah chat services. First it was the Internet Relay Chat. mIRC merupakan client software yang saya gunakan. Nama Khaled Mardam Bey masa tu sangat gah dikalangan internet user di Malaysia sebab itulah nama yang akan keluar masa mula-mula nak load mIRC. He started developing the software in 1994 while studying cognitive science at University of Westminster, London.

Then came the Yahoo Messenger and the ICQ. I remember we need to have a unique identifier in the form of numbers as our contact name in ICQ. We can then rename it to our friend's name. Yahoo Messenger meanwhile uses our Yahoo user id. Both Yahoo Messengher and ICQ are real time chats where messages will popup on our pc eventhough we are using something else at that time. While in mIRC, we need to open the window to see the chats. 

Masa ni penggunaan internet bukan sahaja setakat browsing but also communicating. It was what I called the mIRC days. And we also do simple websites using free web hosting such as geocities dan tripod. Ada few lagi tapi yang dua ni selalu digunakan di Malaysia. Saya pun masa tu ada 2 website di Geocities. Memang banyak pure html digunakan. It is not as easy as Blogspot but we can customize it.

Emails were also frequently used but not as frequent as now where we can get instant emails in real time through our phone (depends on our own setting). I remember of having waumail, one of the earliest Malaysian-based email provider. And then we have free emails such as hotmails, yahoomails, lycos, AOL mails and of course our ISP emails such which ended in something like yourname@tm.net.my or yourname@jaring.my . 

TM is not the only ISP in Malaysia at that time. We also have Jaring. Saya beralih pada akaun Jaring for the sake of an easier dialup connection sebab TM masa tu crowded, ramai sangat pakai. Today, TM still hold the majority of the landline based internet. We also have mobile players now which something that we do not have back then.

Then came the era of social media which combine both text, pictures and some videos. I was on Friendster and a brief Myspace before Facebook. I joined Facebook in 2007 eventhough the site has been around since 2004. It's been 13 years. I remember as well satu site dinamakan fotopages. Kira macam flickrs dimana kita display gambar-gambar yang kita shoot with captions. Dua-dua saya pernah ada. 

Then we have websites such as Blogger and Wordpress for writing posts together with video and pictures.

Social medias now are the norm. I have various social media's account. Name it, twitter, instagram, telegram, whatsapp. Then we have Bigo Live, Tiktok, Snapchat which I still do not use. Maybe I'm getting too old for this.

Now the internet is all about dominance. One company will own many services .This will in turn create their own eco system. Something which has pro and cons. Pro dia is when every single service is created or owned by one single company, kesemua service terbabit boleh di sync maklumatnya. Ambil contoh Google dimana ada pelbagai services di internet yang berasal dari Google. Ada juga yang dibeli oleh Google such as Facebook and Youtube. We have emails from Google, browsers. cloud storage, video conferencing, maps and many more. In fact, my workplace had subscribe Gsuite and we are all happy in using it for work. 

Don't forget Microsoft. With its range of office applications, which Google also offers, Microsoft also had a wide range of services. My workplace also subscribed to Microsoft based products. They also had cloud storage services. But Google had taken one step more in acquiring social media platforms under their name. 

This dominance is also scary as it can create to one having to rely only a single ecosystem while having difficulties in communicating with the other who uses their competitor's ecosystem. But nowadays we have seen things being cross platform. Take for example Apple where it can nowadays be used with a variety of other platforms such as Google and Microsoft. Imagine Macbook users could not open their Gmail service in their computers. 

And now we have the financial services such as internet banking and e-wallet. Especially in this Covid 19 pandemic, this services are at their peak as people are quite afraid in using physical money and also because online commerce platforms reuquires online transactions. 

My Unifi speedtest, using Macbook Air 2020 with wireless connectivity.

As all of us rely on the internet not only for work but also for communication, one most remember that none of the above can be put to good effect if there is no internet line. Having a good infra and of course good security measures is vital. Seeing good speed test results are also welcoming but banyak lagi yang perlu kita ambil kira to ensure a smooth experience in using online services, such as kestabilan server yang kita akses. 

Beli Bag Di Oribags.com

Saya mula mengenali Oribags pada tahun lepas, setelah terjumpa page mereka di Shopee. Ada pelbagai bag dan tempat meletak barang di Oribags shopee. Mereka juga ada membangunkan platform e-commerce mereka sendiri dimana pembelian boleh dilakukan di website mereka. Saya juga follow mereka di facebook. Bagi saya, ini satu konsep yang bagus dimana pelbagai jenis beg dan tempat simpanan asli dan original dari brand-brand yang well known dijual di satu tempat.

Cuma pada waktu itu mereka belum ada kedai. Mereka jual secara online sahaja. Saya ni kalau bab membeli bag memang kena tengok live dan pegang. Setakat bagi maklumat size dimensi dan jenis material beg memang tak hadam saya. Kena juga tengok depan mata.

Ofis oribags ini di Setia Alam, di kawasan belakang Tesco. Saya pernah menaiki motosikal ke sana untuk melihat lokasi dan sekaligus nak terjah ofis mereka untuk melihat sendiri salah satu beg yang saya nak beli which is Thule Powershuttle. Powershuttle dari well known brand which is Thule ni sesuai untuk letak peralatan digital kita yang kecil macam powerbank dan cable. Harga Rm 119 dan saya dah kaji di Youtube. Namun tak puas kalau tak pegang dan tengok depan mata sebelum beli. Tapi sayang ofis tutup sebab saya pergi waktu public holiday. 

Semalam sekali lagi saya ke ofis mereka setelah saya berhubung dengan mereka menerusi whatsapp. Saya dah browse website mereka dan nak beli beg Rivacase atau Case Logic khusus untuk MBA 2020 saya. Laptop cari makan ni kena jaga betul-betul. Agaknya saya ni banyak sangat tanya, admin Oribags ni cadangkan saya terus ke kedai mereka. Rupanya mereka dah ada kedai, tak jauh dari ofis mereka. Kedai bermula operasi kira-kira dua minggu lebih sebelum PKP. Dan minggu ni baru start buka balik selepas PKPB. Sebelum pergi ternampak pula promosi Thule by one free Powershuttle worth RM 119. Terus saya browse serba sedikit dan berkenan dengan Thule Achiever dari segi spesifikasi beg serta harga yang sesuai. Sebenarnya terlebih bajet sebab saya dah set bawah RM 200. Rivacase 8262 sekitar RM 15x manakala Case Logic DLBP 116 kira-kira RM 19x. Seharian saya kaji pasal Rivacase dan Case Logic ini dan membuat pelbagai perbandingan. Thule tak masuk book pun sebab over budget. In the end, bila nampak promosi Oribags berkenaan dengan percuma Thule Powershuttle, terus tak fikir panjang dan cari juga Thule.

Inilah Thule Achiever 20L backpack

Nasib baik ada Thule Achiever 20L, harga Rm 254, tak jauh sangat dari bajet. Ada lagi dua bag Thule yang range bawah RM 300 tapi design dan spec tak menarik. Yang lain semua atas RM 300, ada satu ni cun dan mengikut spec yang saya hendak malangnya harga RM 4xx. 

Main compartment, letak laptop dan ada ruang letak tablet

Compartment kedua besar, boleh letak pen, power adaptor, ada zip.

Thule Achiever ni ada 3 main compartment dan material dia not bad juga. Compartment terbesar ada ruang untuk 15 inch laptop which fits nice for my 13 inch MBA 2020. Ada juga ruang untuk letak tablet dan saya letak tablet Samsung 10inch saya disitu. And then ada compartment kedua besar di hadapan di mana boleh letak pen dan juga benda lain seperti external hardisk. Saya mungkin akan letak cable dan power adaptor Macbook saya. Compartment ketiga pula ada padding tebal. Dalam iklan Thule, tempat ni sesuai letak sunglasses tapi saya letak Bluetooth Mouse saya disitu. 

Ini compartment paling kecil, padding tebal. 

And then dia ada padding yang bagus di belakang untuk support badan pemakai. Ada juga tempat letak botol air di kiri dan kanan beg. Boleh letak air mineral. 

Thule Powershuttle yang dapat percuma dengan pembelian beg ini pula saya letak di dalam compartment terbesar.Dalam tu saya letak powerbank dan juga cable-cable lain. Kedua-dua external hardisk saya sebenarnya dah tak perlukan any container sebab satu ni saya dah siap letak dalam hard case sementara satu lagi iaitu jenama Transcend memang mempunyai protectionnnya sendiri. Maybe my 320gb hardisk saya akan letak dalam Powershuttle saya. Hardisk tu ada di ofis, lupa nak bawa balik. Yang tu memang khas untuk Time Machine Mac. 

Thule Powershuttle. Percuma dengan pembelian beg Thule.

Ada yang tanya saya kenapa saya suka Oribags sedangkan ada banyak kedai-kedai jual beg di shopping mall. Kedai-kedai tersebut banyak jual beg untuk travelling dan beg-beg bersaiz besar. Di Oribags, banyak jual beg untuk kegunaan seharian. Sebelum ni beg kegunaan harian saya cari di kedai sports, tapi kadang kala ia tak sesuai untuk protect laptop. Tak nampak professional juga untuk dibawa kerja. Di Oribags, ada pelbagai jenis beg untuk leisure dan kerja. Beg untuk outdoor pun ada. Dan yang pasti original serta dari pelbagai jenama beg terkenal seperti Thule, Case Logic, Korin Design, XD Design, STM, Pacsafe dan banyak lagi yang saya tak pernah dengar nama. Namun bila saya google, baru tau itu brand hebat. Ada juga beg di Oribags harga RM2xxx. 

Beg yang bagus memberi protection pada barang yang kita bawa. Ia juga tahan lasak dan boleh dipakai bertahun-tahun lama. Jika kita sayang barang kita, sediakanlah protection yang bagus untuknya. Dan yang pasti menggunakan barang original tak sama dengan barang fake. Luaran mungkin hampir sama tapi dari segi kualiti tidak akan sama. Material yang digunakan adalah berbeza. 

Pengalaman Membeli Macbook Air 2020

Seperti yang dijanjikan, saya akan review serba sedikit pengalaman selepas hampir dua hari menggunakan Macbook Air. Semalam ianya sampai pada saya, selamat di deliver iaitu 6 Mei 2020, bersamaan hari Rabu, kira-kira jam 12 tengahari. Order di website Apple Store Malaysia pada hari Sabtu Mei 2020. Tak ingat samada pagi, tengahari atau petang.

Isnin dah diterbangkan dari Changi ke Shenzhen, China. Kemudian ia terbang semula dan sampai di KLIA Sepang pada hari Selasa 5 Mei 2020 jam 7 pagi. Saya menerima SMS dari Apple mengatakan ianya akan di deliver pada 6 Mei 2020. Saya agak tidak percaya kerana ketika ini musim PKP dan beberapa item yang saya beli di Shopee lewat sampai walaupun seller dekat, inikan pula dari Singapore. Owh sebelum itu lupa saya, walaupun saya beli online di website Apple Store Malaysia namun stok dikeluarkan dari warehouse Apple di Singapore. 

Kotak UPS, kualiti terbaik

Rabu tengahari ketika saya sedang work from home, terdengar bunyi hon di pagar depan. Check cctv rupanya Van UPS. Terus saya keluar sambil senyum-senyum dan menerima kotak UPS Parcel. Dalam kotak tu ada Macbook Air saya. Tapi saya tak terus buka kerana perlu sambung kerja WFH saya dan kemudiannya saya keluar ke pejabat kerana urusan kerja hingga jam 4 lebih petang. Baliknya barulah saya buka kotak tersebut. Agak senang kerana terdapat instruction nak buka kotak UPS, just tarik sahaja. 

Dah buka kotak UPS, baru nampak kotak putih Macbook Air 2020 saya. Tak banyak beza dengan kotak putih Macbook 11inch mid 2013 saya, gambar sahaja sedikit berbeza. Cara buka pun sama cuma kali ini saya sendiri yang buka. Ketika saya beli Macbook 11inch saya pada tahun 2014 di Machines, staf Machines yang buka di hadapan saya.

Tengah setup Macbook Air 2020

Then saya terus buka semua pembalut MBA 2020 dan terus setup. Easy as 1 2 3. Saya pun dah kaji sebelum ini di Youtube so no big problem for me. Then once connected to my home wifi, terus MBA saya download and install the latest update for Catalina. Ambil masa juga for installation, around 20 minutes. Download cepat je.

Then I realize that it only has two USB C Thunderbolt port. Nasib baik saya memang dah ada USB C to USB A converter so saya cucuk sahaja di port MBA 2020 saya. For Mouse, saya beli Logitech Bluetooh Mouse M337 di All IT. Masa tulis post ni baru je sejam balik dari All IT Hypermarket. Sangatlah ketat SOP mereka for customer selaras dengan perintah PKPB yang diumumkan. Memang betul seperti yang dijangka, setakat nak window shopping tak perlulah keluar zaman sekarang. Kami juga disoal akan urusan dan tujuan kami sebelum masuk ke All IT. Banyak juga kedai yang berbuat begini. Nama dan telefon direkodkan serta di sanitize tangan. Facemask adalah wajib.

SOP ketat di All IT Hypermarket, iCity Shah Alam

So bila balik saya setup my bluetooth mouse with my MBA and it the process is very simple. So ini hari kedua saya guna MBA saya dan soalan yang ditanya adalah apa beza and specialnya this MBA 2020. Well, saya cuma boleh cerita based on pengalaman saya guna my MBA 11inch Mid 2013 which is i5 generasi awal awal (tak ingat which generation). My MBA 2020 spec is i3 10th gen with 8gb RAM and 256 SSD. My old MBA 11inch has 4gb RAM and 128 SSD. So I can definitely feel the difference of speed and smoothness. Not to say my old MBA 11inch is slow but this MBA 2020 is much more smooth and fast.

Menjawab persoalan specialnya this new MBA 2020 berbanding my old one, besides speed and storage, skrin lebih besar dan lebih cantik. Orang cakap, lebih sharp dan crisp. Apple kata keyboardnya bagus, ramai yang komen positif. Mula-mula saya tak rasa sangat because I came from the mid-2013's keyboard. But after using it until now, I began to feel the difference. Memang rasa sedap menaip guna keyboard yang ini. Touchpadnya pun besar. Sound speaker dia pun power. 

Cuma saya kurang berkenan port usb C thunderbolt ni. Even power pun guna USB C. Saya dah biasa guna Magsafe and I don't quite feel safe with this USB C. Morever, few of my hardwares are using USB A so I need a converter. Contohnya my HP Printer, my external hardisk and my USB Thumbdrives. Talking about external hardisk, this MBA 2020 can easily recognize and read my external. My MBA 11inch mid 2013 could not read my external.

Battery is still strong and seems slow to discharge. My MBA 11inch seems quite fast. And this post is using my MBA 2020. Mula-mula cadang nak jual MBA 11inch tapi rasa sayang pula sebab Apple dah tak keluar dah 11 inci tu. So saya bagi pada wife guna dan dia pun suka sebab senang dia nak bawa buat tugasan di luar. 

Harga, untuk marhain macam saya yang nak pakai produk Apple, memang mampu milik. Harga asal RM 4399, Macbook paling murah untuk Apple. Boleh la untuk selesaikan semua kerja saya. Saya guna diskaun untuk education staff and students, dapat RM 3959. Beli di education store di website Apple Malaysia. Berbaloi. 

Macbook Air 2020 - Delivered

Hi semua, this is just a short post to say that my new MacBook Air 2020 had arrived safely to me today. Van UPS sampai depan rumah kira-kira jam 12 tengahari. Saya sedang berada dalam bilik apabila mendengar hon dan apabila saya view cctv, nampak van UPS terus saya berlari keluar rumah sebab dah tahu apa yang akan sampai.

This is my first post using my MBA 2020. I will review it later on. Masih dalam proses transfer a lot of things from my old MBA 11 inch to this new one. 

Stay Tune.

MBA 2020 - Waiting

Most of the time, I write my blog using my desktop at my office. Di sanalah selalunya idea saya berkembang. Maklumlah tempat akademik, kadangkala duduk sahaja pun boleh melahirkan pelbagai idea.

But during this Movement Control Order (MCO) period, I found myself lockout from my office and spending more time at home doing my work. Yes, most of us are in work from home (WFH) mode. Luckily I brought back my MBA 11. 

This MBA 11 of mine was bought in October 19th, 2014. You can find the post here. Well, basically I forgot whether mine was using i5 intel or i3. Then when I look at the post and also at my own MBA system information, I found out that it was actually an i5 1.3ghz with 4gb Ram plus a 128 gb SSD storage hardisk.

It was a mid 2013 model. Masa saya beli I managed to got it for below RM 3k at Machines. I was so naive to Apple Macs those days (even sekarang pun masih agak naive). Sebab tu harganya murah sebab ia stok lama. Masa tu MBA 2014 tengah hot selling for almost 4k. Through all the years using it, I had upgrade the OS several times. And some of it do slowed my Mac a bit, while some it do speed up my Mac a bit. 

To be honest, I did not use it a lot as I prefer using my desktop. Only several times where I need to do work away from my office. Furthermore, I was using only Mac related products for my work, rather than Microsoft Office which was being used by almost all of my colleagues and students. Even though the files were compatible with each other, but it always has minor issues such as formatting and so on. In the end I found out that I was using the Mac mainly for receiving student's assignment via their usb disk. No virus was ever transmitted to my Mac because it can't read Windows-based virus. 

The other thing my MBA served me for is to do presentations. I even bought the VGA adapter for almost RM2xx i think. That leaves me with a battery cycle of around 70 per 1000 ( at the time of this post). It really shows that I rarely use my MBA. The battery was as almost as new. 

So today, it was almost 5 years and 7 months using my MBA and for the past 2 months it was my saviour. Almost every single work is done through this. I even manage setting up my printer to be use with my MBA. As I am getting older, I began to feel my MBA's 11 inch screen is getting smaller. I decided to find a bigger screen. At first I wanna get back to Windows-based laptop. But the experience using Mac is marvellous. My MBA walaupun dah 5 tahun lebih tapi tak pernah rasa ketinggalan dari segi teknologi. Masih steady suppport my kind of work. Seolah-olah tidak pernah ditelan teknologi. The speed was still fast.

So I needed to decide. Stick to this one for a year or two or grab a new one now and sell this one before the price deteriorate further. Already my MBA has the worth of RM1.5k at least. And giving that Apple does not produce anymore 11inch may increase the price a bit. 

Weeks of research had produce its result. Saya ambil keputusan for a new MBA. So bila browse internet, I saw reviews of the new Macbook Air 2020. Katanya keyboard terbaik, guna pula retina display. Dan yang penting, ia mencapai segala yang saya nak which is skrin lebih besar (13 inci), storage lebih besar which is 256gb SSD and RAM lebih besar which is 8. I took the base model of i3 intel processor, which some of you may think it is a downgrade. But this is the 10th Generation i3 which is miles faster than my mid 2013 MBA i5. 

So, mana nak beli time-time MCO ni. Browse online dan all Apple reseller ada offer delivery such as Switch, Machines, Seng Heng, Harvey Norman and few others. The price was almost 4.4k. I remember seeing at Apple Store online that they had this wonderful offer for educational staffs. So I pointed my browser to the site. Here I was in the Apple Store Education Shop area, and I found myself having almost RM 400 discount. It makes the new MBA 2020 less than 4k. This is so tempting. The drawback is I need to purchase it online. Morever it will be shipped from it's warehouse located at Singapore. Both Singapore and Malaysia are having the Covid 19 pandemic, I am afraid that delivery will take forever. 

So, saya pun browse sikit cari maklumat. Unbelievable it is to find that most users had wonderful experience using the site. Few user had also said that the shipping during MCO was way faster than expected. So I decided to order one late Saturday 2nd May. Guess what, they informed me yesterday that I will receive it tommorow which came as a big surprise to me. I never expected it to be so soon. I had ordered some accessories from oversea as I thought it will come much earlier than my new MBA 2020. 

So as I write this post today, I may be less than 48 hours to receive my new MBA. If all went well, I will be busy installing new softwares on my new Mac. As for this MBA 11 inch, mula-mula nak jual tapi rasa sayang pula. My wife lepas post MCO ni akan kena buat macam-macam kerja untuk. So I decided untuk bagi pada dia. 

Hope the shipment will arrive as told. I heard that it does not arrive in Malaysia by sea but by air.

Post MCO.. Is it to soon?

Well, this time I admit that I did not see it coming. I've stopped waiting for the daily live telecast of reportings regarding our country's Covid19 and MCO's situation. Not because I hate it, but I could always find the summarize version of it elsewhere on the internet or through social media right after they had finished their reporting.

Before this, saya sering berkata pada rakan-rakan bahawa mereka perlu menerima hakikat yang MCO ditamatkan sepenuhnya atau dilonggarkan sebanyak mungkin even before adanya vaksin atau ubat Covid19.

Saya melihat ini semua dari satu frasa, 'You might end up dying either due to starvation or covid19'. Which means that one day when the economy is really bad, people will just go out despite the MCO.

Saya juga memberi gambaran pada rakan-rakan akan situasi post MCO dimana pelbagai perkara akan slowly dibuka. Jangan tiba-tiba dibuka kembali semua serentak pada 1 hari. Huru-hara jadinya.

So, when it was decided that 4th May, almost everything dibuka kembali which means many people returning back to work, this may cause chaos in some places. Already after the announcement, grup whatsapp taman saya dah kecoh dengan orang ramai mencari babysitter untuk jaga anak dia sebab Isnin dah kena masuk kerja. Taska and tadika here would not open yet on Monday. Majikan-majikan ni pun satu hal, rushing sangat macam tak menyabar. Give and take lah. Bukan PM wajibkan korang nak start hari Isnin pun. Macam tempat kerja saya steady. Tunggu guideline from Kementerian kata mereka. Then baru diorang akan keluarkan satu guideline khusus untuk kami. For us academicians, I believe that we can rotate working. Tak perlu everyone datang serentak for one day. Lagipun students tak ada. And we too are afraid of making contact with others dalam jangkamasa yang lama. Dah la kerja pun di dalam tempat aircond. 

Apa yang saya dan rakan-rakan terkejut, selain dari pembukaan hampir keseluruhan sektor pekerjaan, is restoran yang boleh dine-in. I know this is the fasting month dimana majoriti rakyat kita beragama Islam tidak akan ke restoran waktu tengahari. What I am more worried is they will be flocking the restaurants during iftar. I really think that letting people dine in is not the correct move now. Mereka boleh je take away. They can always eat anywhere else, asalkan bukan duduk dalam restoran yang tertutup. Sudah tentu ada yang akan melepak lebih dari 30 minit untuk berbual bersama rakan-rakan. I know some friends of mine yang memang sebelum MCO pun kaki lepak kedai mamak ramai-ramai. And these guys just can't wait to lepak together this Monday. Trust me they will lepak together for many hours. Eventhough there are SOP's, but they still can lepak bertiga or berempat on one large table. 

I do understand the current situation now as we will face an economical collapse if we still continue our current MCO's level. Saya dikelilingi oleh ramai jiran-jiran freelance. Ada kerja ada gaji. During MCO mereka terpaksa struggle meneruskan kehidupan dalam tidak ketentuan. Sometimes I will buy foods from neighbours yang jual makanan and give it to jiran-jiran lain yang struggle. My friends yang gaji tak potong especially yang kerja sektor awam pun ramai buat macam tu. Ramai juga orang-orang di taman saya dan berhampiran bertukar menjual pelbagai makanan online dan buat delivery semata untuk meneruskan kehidupan. And I do support them eventhough sometimes saya tak makan sangat pun apa yang mereka jual. 

Jiran kiri kanan saya pun macam saya, masih menerima gaji. Yang sorang lagi jiran 2 pintu dari saya, struggle juga sebab dia buat kerja-kerja cabling dan projek on hold. Yes, I fully understand the situation where you have to let people to work but I think that's it. Dine in restaurants? I do think they need to reconsider it. Buka gerai-gerai tepi jalan maybe boleh. Just let take aways sahaja. At least these people tak perlu buka face mask masa berurusan. Kalau dine-in takkan nak pakai face mask masa makan and minum.

However as our PM said, we need to practice the new norm such as social distancing, face masks, washing hands, sanitizers etc. Whatever it is, to wait for the vaccine or medication is impossible without suffering economically. A bold and I believe a well calculated move. Maybe our health institution are deemed to be ready enough for any kind of situation after this. We hope for the best. And do practice the SOP laid out by KKM. We have been practicing good so far, it's time for us to use it in the real situation. And happy labour's day.

Going Cashless

Transaksi atas talian semakin kerap digunakan oleh kita semua. Lagi-lagi dengan kadar celik internet di negara ini yang semakin tinggi. Mungkin tidak sehebat negara seperti Korea Selatan, namun semakin ramai rakyat Malaysia terdedah dengan akses internet. Akses internet tidak semestinya melalui jalur lebar di rumah, tetapi juga melalui mobile internet. Kadar pemilikan smartphone yang tinggi juga memainkan peranan. Apalah guna smartphone jika ianya tidak disambung dengan internet.

Internet digunakan atas pelbagai tujuan. Yang paling kerap adalah social media seperti Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter dan Instagram. Online shopping juga antara punca utama kita menggunakan internet. Ada pelbagai medium online shopping platform di Malaysia seperti Lazada dan Shoppee. Kalau old school sikit ialah Mudah.my atau melayari forum-forum seperti Lowyat. Facebook juga dipenuhi pelbagai grup menjual barang. Tak ketinggalan juga ada yang mengiklankan produk masing-masing dalam grup whatsapp. 

Saya pula membahagikan penggunaan internet saya kepada 5 perkara yang utama. The first one is surely for communication purpose which is Whatsapp. Kerja saya agak banyak menggunakan komunikasi dua hala and one of them is using Whatsapp. Kadangkala pelaporan kerja kepada boss dibuat menerusi Whatsapp. Email juga digunakan namun kebanyakan email hanyalah susulan dari hebahan awal di Whatsapp. Lately ni, spreadsheet dan laporan dalam bentuk words pun dah mula diattach pada Whatsapp.

Kedua, pembayaran bil. Majoriti bil saya dibayar menggunakan transaksi online. Boleh dikatakan hampir 100%. Bil juga diterima secara online. 

Ketiga, social media. Facebook, instagram dan twitter bukan sahaja tempat berhubung dengan rakan-rakan, tetapi juga tempat menambah kenalan. And for sure saya melihat laporan awal news from twitter especially from news official accounts. 

Keempat, online shopping and services. Kadangkala agak sukar mencari barang-barang yang saya perlukan. Terpaksa ke kedai sana sini untuk mendapatkannya. Menggunakan online platform, just enter the keyword and you will be presented with various online seller yang menjualnya. It will be delivered straight to your door. Cuma kena bersabar. Services such as Grab sememangnya perlukan akses internet. Even GPS sekarang pun boleh connect to internet service, such as Waze and Google Maps.

Kelima, information searching. When I need some clarifications regarding certain matters, I will search the internet. Sometimes kalau just for basic understanding, wikipedia is the place. To go deeper, sources dalam wiki akan saya gali. For my work, I need to use academic research and articles. So I just log on to my library portal and search their database. It's a habit for me to browsing through research paper and articles to read interesting findings from all over the world. 

Cashless society is somewhat related to internet as we need it in order to perform our cashless transactions. 

Sila lihat laporan media di bawah. Laporan asal dari Bernama dan dipetik oleh beberapa media seperti dari The Sun Daily dan Astro Awani Online. Sinar Harian juga tidak ketinggalan melaporkannya. 

MCO best time to achieve cashless society goal

SEREMBAN: The implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO) to curb the spread of the COVID-19 infection since March 18, has affected the people‘s daily routine in every aspect of life including shopping transactions.

The movement restriction has forced the public to practice the cashless transaction method and as time goes by, they are getting familiar with it.

Hence, the MCO which has been extended until May 12 is seen as the best time to achieve the government’s intention to create a cashless society.

Although some people prefer to make payment in cash, many are getting familiar with the e-payment for all sort of things such as paying for utility bills, food, insurance renewals and so on.

A senior lecturer at Faculty of Information Management, Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Puncak Perdana campus in Shah Alam, Selangor Dr Mohd Nizam Yunus said online purchasing was currently on its peak as the public was concern about the possibility of banknotes being contaminated with COVID-19 virus as well as to comply with the MCO guidelines by staying at home.

“I do agree that MCO is the best time to educate the public on the benefits of online payments. I think one of the new normal resulted from this pandemic is doing things online particularly financial transactions.

“We could also see a trend of home-based traders receiving payments via Internet banking transactions, this has shown us that there is a strong trust between buyers and sellers during this MCO period,” he told Bernama here.

However, he also highlighted that to achieve the cashless society goal, it had to be supported by a stable Internet connectivity.

Another senior lecturer from the same faculty, Dr Muhamad Khairulnizam Zaini said online purchasing and e-payment was a positive trend that will lead to the evolution of a cashless society in shaping a modern and more efficient country.

“Cashless transaction is a common practice in many developed countries. Hence, following the trend is a good start for Malaysia in our pursuit to become a developed and competitive country.

“For the time being, I believe that the people are familiarising themselves with the cashless transaction in their daily activities,” he said.

Meanwhile, A&J Burger Grill and Western restaurant owner Mohd Johar M. Jaffar, 37, said throughout MCO, he had been utilising online payment transaction but still accepting cash payment.

“Most customers are using the online transaction to pay for their order... some still prefer cash payment, which involves about 30 to 40 per cent of customers,” he said.