Yopy

Just came upon reading a new local company [tag]Worldip.tv[/tag] (read like world-ip) is offering internet Tv platform that consist of local channel (TV 3, NTV 7, TV8 and TV 9) and some Indonesian channel.

I sign-up on their service and try it. It a good effort from these guys. Being malaysian company and able to come up with this software (i hope the back-end is not an oem from some other company), the streaming is quite impressive. The picture and sound quality are very good.

Resize – Only full size or original. You can’t re-size to your liking

Channel – Everytime you need to change a channel, you need to go back to the original page.

Timeout – It will stop after 30 minutes and it’s said ‘due to inactivity, we stop the stop streaming’ (the word might be exact but it’s sound something like that). So, it’s like you have a TV and if you don’t use your remote control in the span of the 30 minutes, the TV will shut down.

Compare to [tag]TVUnetworks[/tag]. TVUnetworks is by far the most stable of all the internet TV. I have tried tried [tag]RongTv[/tag], [tag]Tvants[/tag] and [tag]SatelliteTV PC elite[/tag]. All these internet TV software I mention on the parentheses have not been able to continue streaming for more than 1 minute without going into buffering.

It’s almost function like Tv. Anytime you want to change channel, just click on the left side and you can re-size to any size. Further, they provide broadcast software for anyone to stream their video.

As of now, my vote goes to TVUnetworks. All internet Tv wannabe need to work hard.

Next, It’s would be interesting to see how Worldip.tv will roll out their subscription based plan. They claim to have 15,000 subscribers. The moment you say, collect money. That number will drop to 1%-3%. So, before they choose this road, they need to find other stream of revenue. Otherwise, it will be……something to be forgotten by next year.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Filed under: Thinking Aloud by yopy, published June 28, 2007

I’ll just sign-up with [tag]Nuffnang[/tag] & [tag]Advertlets[/tag] last week. I hv both of them in this blog and I put one at milaga blog. What is my user experience from these two companies?

Let talk Advertlets first. Ease of sign-up. No fuss. Put in my username and my real name (in case I’ll get paid). They did not even ask for my address. That it. An email was send to me for activation and then I can proceed to pick-up the code. Nuffnang on the other hand, wants my real name and address. Then they took me on a whirlwind survey before I could get the code. I almost give up.

My question is will the data gather at this early stage of the sign-up really significant. Does it really give you a say 80%+ accuracy. Data gathering at this early stage might not bring you that kind of accuracy.

One thing that Nuffnang have is the latest blogger section. The moment I sign-up, my site will appear and that will trigger some curious visitor to come over. This is good.

On Advertlets, the name is tough to type. I will always have typo when I type advertlets. I will type advertslet.com. It wrong. Then I will probably type advertslets.com. Wrong again. This is a case when you choose a domain name. Always bear in mind the ’s’ and user experience.

This is to Nuffnang. If you ever come to read my blog, can I request an animation on my nuffnang code? As you can see, I put Nuffnang way down there because it’s static and dull when there are no ads.

Ok. That it.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Filed under: Personal by yopy, published June 25, 2007

I went to [tag]Sms seminar[/tag] organized by [tag]Global Surf Sdn. Bhd[/tag]. It’s not a free seminar. It’s Rm 180 but it well worth it because you get breakfast, lunch (buffet lunch) and tea break.

There are 3 parts to the seminars. The first part is called Reverse Billing. It’s for those whose has some brilliant content idea and you don’t want to build the infrastructure from scratch. You can ride on their platform because that will lower your cost of entry into the market. But they will take a cut on the profit.

If you ride on their platform, you probably have to fork out Rm 20,000 to 30,000. If you build from scratch, it’s cost about Rm 200,000 and take 6 months to 1 years (2 to 3 months to get MCMC license, 3 to 6 months for telcos to setup on their end) for the platform to be functional.

Next, the telcos will get their part of the profit first – Maxis (40%), Digi (30%), Celcom (50%), Tm Touch (50%). Whatever profit left, you will have to share it with Global Surf.

The second part is Corporate SMS. They have a front-end web-based software that they sell (you can become their reseller if you want) to enable companies to facilitate information to customer or using it to do promotion. Another example, It’s very useful for insurance agents who have a large database of customer and the customer can send SMS to check the expiration of their insurance policy, the agents can send out reminder notices, birthday greeting and etc.

In the [tag]milaga.com[/tag] scenario, I can use it to entice prospective forex traders to open live account and maybe use it just to disseminate forex information or trade signal. This will depend on whether I will get any marketing dollar from [tag]umeforex[/tag]. Otherwise, I can only imagine about it.

The last one is One Stop Entertainment – It’s a pre-paid sms card cost Rm 20 that comes with contents. It’s marketed in Mlm fashion and it’s not for me because Mlm is not my thing. For now, their content is target to a young audience.

All in all, it’s an eye opening experience. I wanted to do the Sms thing during the ringtones craze but now, I am not that hot about it. If I want to pump Rm 20k to Rm 30k to an SMS platform, I might as well use this capital in the forex market. My percentage of gain is much higher.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Filed under: Seminars by yopy, published June 23, 2007

Just read this article written by [tag]Marc Andreessen[/tag] via [tag]Michael Parekh[/tag] website, what Marc said on his article is so true and like Michael Parekh said really ‘hit home’ for me, too.

Below are some except that I truly understand and ‘get it’. Marc Andreessen article is here

Second, in a startup, absolutely nothing happens unless you make it happen.

This one throws both founders and employees new to startups.

In an established company — no matter how poorly run or demoralized — things happen. They just happen. People come in to work. Code gets written. User interfaces get designed. Servers get provisioned. Markets get analyzed. Pricing gets studied and determined. Sales calls get made. The wastebaskets get emptied. And so on.

A startup has none of the established systems, rhythms, infrastructure that any established company has.

This is so true, when I was working with Ingram Micro as a product manager; my General Manager (GM) does not come into the office that often. But the business still continue, everyone know what to do, everyone knows his/her role in the company. The only time I receive or hear from my GM is when I authorized a sale below cost. This is where I need to come in with the supporting document to justify my decision. Otherwise, it’s business as usual.

Third, you get told NO — a lot.

Unless you’ve spent time in sales, you are probably not familiar with being told NO a lot.

It’s not so much fun.

Go watch Death of a Salesman and then Glengarry Glen Ross.

That’s roughly what it’s like.

You’re going to get told NO by potential employees, potential investors, potential customers, potential partners, reporters, analysts…

Over and over and over.

And when you do get a “yes”, half the time you’ll get a call two days later and it’ll turn out the answer has morphed into “NO”.

Better start working on your fake smile.

Like I said previously on the video about 8 things that lead to success, I know the closing average on a sales call but it can be morally depressing when you get so many ‘NO’. At times, you might think, is this journey worth all the humiliation/rejection.

Eighth, there are lots of [tag]X factors[/tag] that can come along and whip you right upside the head, and there’s absolutely nothing you can do about them.

Stock market crashes.

Terrorist attacks.

Natural disasters.

A better funded startup with a more experienced team that’s been hard at work longer than you have, in stealth mode, that unexpectedly releases a product that swiftly comes to dominate your market, completely closing off your opportunity, and you had no idea they were even working on it.

At best, any given X factor might slam shut the fundraising window, cause customers to delay or cancel purchases — or, at worst, shut down your whole company.

Now, this one is another true fact, when I was in Los Angeles with a small I.T. hardware firm. The company was already under financial duress due to other reasons. There was an order of 60,000 usd of computer hardware coming from Orange County. After delivering the products, a week later, Orange County declare bankruptcy (December 6, 1994).

On March 1995, we sold the Orange County invoice to a collector for 18,000 usd and the following May, 1995 we shut down.

Next, I really like what Michael said below:-

One thing I’d add would be that more likely than not, the startup will need to meaningfully change it’s product and/or service direction at least once or more in the first three years.

Almost every startup you can think of started off as one thing and eventually became something very different way before making the transition from private to a public company.

Microsoft in it’s earliest days was a programming tools company, not an operating system and application company.

Yahoo! started out as a directory of websites, not a media portal/web-based online service.

Google, of course started out as a search company, but didn’t become the Google money machine we know, until it built it’s keyword advertising system.

These are only the most well-known examples.

You can read the rest of Michael Parekh article here

Again, this is what happening to me at [tag]milaga.com[/tag]. It’s started out as a online/offline media company and now it’s evolve into a financial information with introducing broker attached. Now, is this the final form for milaga? I can only say, I don’t know. For now, this is the direction it’s moving but it could change.

Anyway, this is my take for now on [tag]the challenges of being a startup[/tag].

Popularity: 7% [?]

Filed under: Startup Biz by yopy, published June 21, 2007

I hv been trying for the last 5 hours trying to book a ticket from [tag]AirAsia[/tag] to [tag]Macau[/tag]. So far, no luck,yet. It’s not because there is no seat but the page hang on the 3rd step. I just don’t understand.

I don’t know this only happened to me or other might have encountered the same problem. I think AirAsia does not have [tag]Akamai[/tag] caching system on their front-end. Some of the pages need to be cached because of frequent usage. I might be wrong but I don’t see it.

Or, It could be my streamyx problem but then again, I could go to other website with ease. Only on AirAsia website I am having problem. Well, if I am not successful tomorrow, I fly [tag]China Airlines[/tag]. I tried AirAsia but you don’t like me. I guessed I hv to tried your [tag]Rm 7[/tag] [tag]nasi lemak[/tag] some other time.

Update – June 21st – Finally, got it done with AirAsia. I guess I will be able to try the Rm 7 nasi lemak. All the booking was done by my sister, I give up trying. So, credit goes to her. This will be my first time flying AirAsia. It will be an experience.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Filed under: Uncategorized by yopy, published June 20, 2007

I went to [tag]Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri[/tag] ([tag]LHDN[/tag]) at Pandan Indah hoping to register for my tax e-filing. I arrived at around 2 pm and the lines was empty. I took my number and it was the first one (0001).

I thought since its was 2pm and just after lunch. Being govt servants, they would take their own sweet time to call my nunber. After waited for 5 mins, I thought there must be something wrong. I went to information counter, showed her my number and told her I want to register for e-filing.

She said ‘[tag]the broadband lines has been down for the day. come back tomorrow[/tag]‘. I can only shake my head and walk away. I might hv go there back again tomorrow. Wasted time and parking fees.

[tag]Only in malaysia[/tag]

June 20 – Update – Finally, today I got my pin number and manage to register my e-filling. Let see next year, if I could file my taxes online.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Filed under: Malaysia by yopy, published June 19, 2007

I just want to share this video from ted.com talks on things that leads to success. One of the 8 things that I found is the word Persist through C.R.A.P. Me and my friends often spends time talking about why we aren’t successful. We have all the ingredient necessary to be successful. When we worked for someone, we achieved our target. The company is happy and we are happy.

But when we venture out, we were unable to duplicate this success. We have founded many ventures and failed at these ventures. He said…maybe we are not Persistent enough.

Today, I realized I was not persistent enough through C.R.A.P (Criticism, Rejection, Asshole and Pressure). For me, Criticism and Assholes are the two toughest part that is hard to overcome. When I was young, I can take these two things in stride. When you are 40, sometimes it can be hard to swallow.

Anyway, I need to work on all the 8 things, otherwise I will still be looking for my place in field when I am 50.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Filed under: Motivational by yopy, published June 17, 2007

I have been struggling for the last couple hours trying to figure out what when wrong. When I click the adsense-deluxe, I get [tag]unable to load adsense-deluxe.php[/tag].

Finally, I found it at wordpress forum. I need to copy the adsense-deluxe.php to the root of the plugin directory. Otherwise, it won’t work.

I am stupid….

Popularity: 7% [?]

Filed under: Wordpress Stuff by yopy, published June 15, 2007

I put up this video because I want to remind myself that life is not a destination but a journey. I need to stop once in a while and check out the smell of the roses. Most important of all, not to feel depressed when I feel like I on an uphill journey.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Filed under: Motivational by yopy, published

This is my third time moving this blog. I hope this time it will be the last. Anyway, change is good and its a way to start new. You can find my old blog here at Yopy but I doubt anyone would care. My traffic was not that good anyway.

All in all, it’s a good beginning…reborn….

Popularity: 6% [?]

Filed under: Personal by yopy, published