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I was at my friend office the other day when he started complaining about non-stop e-mails coming to his notebook.  He said that nowadays, about 70% of his time in office reading and replaying e-mail.  During meeting he put his notebook on just to check new e-mail or take action on existing ones.  Worst is, even during weekend and leave, he usually checks e-mail.  By checking mail daily, he said, his list will not grow and important and urgent mail will be responded.

I just smiled.  I’m experiencing the same scenario.  Nowadays, bosses are all equipped with blackberry or PDA who can check e-mail even when he/she is out of office.  They need information while on the move to make decision.  Information is critical.  Bosses with latest and accurate information will have the advantage against others to make business decision.

Some of these e-mails actually do not require immediate action.  It’s just to give some information or some acknowledgement.  But these types of e-mail plus some junk mail that make our inbox grows.  And as the list grows, you’ll feel a bit stressful because you know you have to read all of them finally.

Some people said, you just got to differentiate which e-mail is important and urgent.  That’s the type of e-mail you have to tackle first.  But to me, how do you know if its urgent/important if you have not read all of them.  Worst is, nowadays every mail seems to be urgent.

Sometime you turn on your notebook to do work which nearing deadline.  The information or file you required is attached to an e-mail.  So you have to open up your outlook to retrieve this particular e-mail.  But instead of reading that particular e-mail only, you end up reading next and next and next e-mails, and finally you realized after two or three hours you have not started your intended work yet!

The pop-up window at the bottom right corner of your screen for alarming of new e-mail, is also not helping.  As you are doing your work, suddenly a new e-mail from your boss pops up that needs urgent attention.  I’m very sure you will stop what you are doing and read and take action on the new e-mail.  Than, another mail from your subordinate that also needs your attention.   Than, other new e-mail and so on….There is always new e-mail that disrupt the flow of your work unless you just ignore them.  I just can’t.  I sometime just close my outlook so that I can focus on the work in hand.

Technology has changed the way we work.  I remember when I started working 17 years ago, there was no e-mail.  Information flows was via fax machine only.   Computers were only a few in our offices.  Notebook was not around.  So I would say during that time, deadline given was still manageable; compare to today where the deadline is always TODAY or NOW.  Or if you want to be less effective ‘ASAP’.  Those time, work is during office hour only.  But now, you have to bring your work back home after office hours.  You still do your work at home because they provide you with laptop and mobile broadband.  So they do not expect you to miss deadline.  Actually they do not accept any excuses for missing the deadline!

Well, I guess we just have to live with this until retired…..or find another job!

admin Work

I was surfing when came across the college football.  It has been a long time, more than 10 years,  I have not followed American football.  Checking the ranking, I was surprised that my Tide is ranked 2nd in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll after Florida with a 6-0 record.  But in the USA Today Poll, they put Alabama in the 3rd position after Florida and Texas.

I was at University of Alabama from 1987 to 1989.  Yes, at Tuscaloosa Alabama, home of the Crimson Tide.  Alabama Crimson Tide is rich with football history.  They won the National Championship more than ten times.  And I’m not sure how many time they won the SEC conference. 

But during my stayed there(1987-1989), their performance was, I would say, mediocre.  In fact, we even lost our homecoming game in 1988.  And those three years, we lost to Auburn.  They called the Auburn game as a Iron game.  The Auburn game is important to both University, from what I see, because whoever won will claim that they are the number one football team in the state.  But in 1989, we made it to the Sugar Bowl, and unfortunately were beaten by Miami.

I just hope Tide will always roll and beat Auburn this season.  I also wish they would maintain their current good form and finally go to Sugar Bowl to claim the National Champion.

Touchdown Alabama!
Roll Tide Roll!

admin Sport

I finally managed to launch my own blog.  Thanks to this e-book that I bought a month ago “Panduan Asas Wordpress” for blogger. 

I woud say, this book is best suited for newbie like me.  I only heard wordpress is for setting up your blog, but do not know how to start.  This book really helps with step by step instruction from installation, configuration and maintaining your blog.  It gives clear explanation with the aid of picture and graphic.

I was surprised that my blog is up and running within a week.

This e-book actually comes together with others e-book; “Panduan mudah FTP” as a package.  I think for a beginner, you need both of them to really start developing your blog.  The FTP e-book will guide you on how to upload and download to and from server from local pc/laptop.  It also gives readers some basic information about internet, hosting and domain.

The package also comes with a checklist so that your work is more systematic and you will not miss key action including how to make your blog visible by the search engine.

I would strongly recommend this package because it works with me who knows nothing about Wordpress and FTP.

As for web hosting and domain name, I use Net KL who responded to my queried even before I subscribe to them for some clarification on their package.  The service given so far is excellent and I have not yet experienced any failure to access their server.

admin Bloging

Blogging 101 is mostly about the blogging vocabulary. To understand blogs, you need to know the terms blog, platform, domain, and web host.

Once you have mastered these key elements of blogging, you can enter any conversation about blogging with confidence. After you know what exactly a blog is, you will be on your way to passing the final exam of blogging 101.

Blog is short for weblog, which simply means a series of online posts presented in reverse chronological order. That’s all! Most blogs are text, but there are also photo blogs and video blogs.

The rest of blogging 101 has to do with the technical side of things. If you are setting up a blog, you will need a platform, a web host, and a domain. A blogging platform is a computer software program that allows you to write posts and to update your blog.

Your platform is also what you use to design the look of your blog, from color scheme to font size. The web host is sort of like the virtual file cabinet where your blog is stored. Your computer communicates with the host when you upload or edit a post.

The domain is the online address of your blog, and usually ends in ‘dot com’. Now that you know what a blog is, what a platform is, and what domains and hosts are, congratulate yourself!

You have passed blogging 101.

admin Bloging