Money Talks – it’s not everything, but everything is money

About professional certifications

There are so many ICT professional certifications (think CISSP, MCSE, CCSE, CCIE blah blah blah) from so many companies that it all seems to be one convoluted mass of confusion. It seems to me that any company or “educational instutution” could come up with their certifications, give it a spunky name and add it to the ever-increasing certification mass.

Here’s an interesting article over at certmag.com that attempts to make things a little clearer.

[Link]

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Is RM3,000 per month enough for a Malaysian family to live on?

The following is something which some of us have been thinking about every day. Very true indeed. However, what we do after reading it is the million dollar question.

I’ll try to do some calculations here. In Malaysia the average family income is RM3000 (Father works, mother doesnt). I understand there are a lot of families whose income don’t reach RM3000, but, to make things simple, lets take RM3000 as the figure. ok la right?

Okay, let’s start rolling with a family which has Papa, Mama, 1 daughter and 1 son. ngam ngam..

Calculation starts…

Electricity and water bil RM100 (no aircond, no home theatre, no water heater k?)

Telekom and Handphone bil RM100 (cannot make a lot of calls one you know? NO Streamyx also)

Meal for the whole happy family RM775 (3 meals on RM25/day, RM25 for 4 persons????)

Papa makan/teh tarik during working hours RM155 (RM5/day, RM5 can eat what?)

Car repayment RM400 (a proton saga aeroback, 7 years repayment)
Petrol RM300 (Living in City, Jam) Bring wife to work, bring son to school, only can afford one car running.
Insurance RM650, (kids, wife and myself).
House repayment RM750 (Low cost housing repayment for 30 years, retired still have to work to pay house!)
Tuition RM80 (got that cheap meh?? No, I don’t think so)
Older children pocket money @ school RM20 (RM1/day, eat bread??)
School fees RM30 (enough ah??)

School books and etc etc. RM100 (always got extra to pay in school)
Younger children milk powder RM50 (cannot have the DHA, BHA, PHA one, expensive)
Miscellaneous RM100 (shampoo, rice, sauce, toilet paper)

oh wait!!! I have to stop here, so… No Astro, no movie @ cinema, no DVD, no CD, no online, cannot KFC, cannot Mc Donald, cannot go Park walk during weekend(petrol expensive), no chit chat on phone with grandparents, and etc…

Let’s use a calculator to total up… WALAO EI.. Shit! RM3610 already.. EPF belum potong, income tax lagi,……..oledi — RM610… How to survive laa tuan-tuan dan puan-puan sekalian??? Our Deputy Prime Minister ask us to change lifestyle? How to change? Don’t eat? Don’t work? Don’t send children to school and study? Besides that, I believe in Malaysia population, there are millions of Rakyat Malaysia which still don’t earn RM3000/month!!!

What is this? Ini lah Malaysia Boleh.. Sorry.. it should be Malaysians Boleh, because we’re still alive and kicking!

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Masseuses can earn up to RM6,000 per month in Sabah (Malaysia)

A few days ago, I talked to a masseuse from the Philippines who’s been in Sabah for 15 years. She was initially employed as a nurse at QEH, then as a private nurse in Ranau for 5 years. Then she opened a massage parlour (the proper kind, not the other kind) in Ranau for about 2 years, earning about RM30 per session. (more…)

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nichebot.com: free tool to check popularity of specific subjects

nichebot.com 

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Malaysian students in UK: we are not mercenaries

UK Executive Council for Malaysian Students chairman Wan Mohd Firdaus Wan Mohd Fuaad’s rebuts Higher Education Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed’s “return to Malaysia, money is not everything.”

He says: money is only 30% of the reasons why Malaysian professionals and students choose to remain in Britain.  Other factors includes work culture, environment, exposure, job challenges and prospects.

While MCA Club Australia president Chan Wei Ming is more blunt. He says the Datuk’s speech is like baiting sharks with worms. Datuk, you need a bigger bait lah! (more…)

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Cost of living in Malaysia and Great Britain compared

Someone sent me an email about it, apparently a forum posting by a guy with nick reginaldho. This was in response to complaints about the 30 sen increase in petrol prices earlier this year. Dr Reginald Ho I presume?

Interesting read and sometimes thought-provoking. Your 2 cents?

The posting is here reproduced verbatim. (more…)

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Cellphones.com is earning USD1,500 per month displaying Overture ads

Markus Frind, the guy who makes USD10,000 per day via Adsense said this in his podcast. (more…)

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Best companies to work for in Malaysia

I recently received an email listing the top 30 companies to work for in Malaysia. It’s a mixture of Malaysian and foreign (mostly US) companies.

I would want to know the juicy details for each company, like salary levels, stress levels and actual working environment. (more…)

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How keywords impact search engine rankings

In essence, Michael Meadhra’s article tells us that keyword meta tags don’t count

Even though search engines don’t make known their exact algorithms, observations indicate that the most relevant keywords are in the following order (highest first): (more…)

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How much to charge for freelance jobs?

It’s tough to determine, and depends on a few factors.
As CreativeGuy put it:

Charge too much and you don’t get the work, charge too little and you end up with a bad taste in your mouth from eating frozen burritos 3 times a day.

Then he said something very true but I’ve been suppressing deep within:

What I find the most is that most designers don’t charge enough. I’ve heard of people doing entire Web sites for $1,000, brochures for $300 or charging a whopping $25 an hour. This is insane!

(more…)

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