心很冷

他不關心我。
看見我哭了也當儸無其事。
我哭了一夜。
夜很涼，心很冷。

Customer Service

Acer provide much better customer service when compare to the following encounter with Samsung.

I remember I wrote a feedback to them on both my Acer product having problem, and immediately they send their technician down to collect the laptop from me and keep me updated on my laptop servicing progress…

Had a very bad experience with Samsung Gift Redemption. I bought a 32" LCD TV from Samsung in Nov 2006 and was given a number to call for gift redemption (being assured that we just need to call for redemption).

1) First 3 time call (space out in Dec), gift that we chose (‘washer’) have not arrived. The third time we are issued with a queue number, and just want us to continue call back and check (wonder why can’t they offer to call us back when the stocks are available).

2) My husband called at least 2 times, there is once the staff mentions that we can arrange the delivery date with them once the washer stock arrived.

3) There after many times we called during office hour, either phone engaged or no one pickup. Therefore I resort to calling Samsung service center, but was revert to call the redemption center again.

4) Recently called (23/01/2007), and the staff mention he need to check with the manager before call back. We waited for 2 days and no reply.

5) Today (26/01/2007) I went down to the center personally, the staff there first tells me cannot find our issued queue num. registered with them earlier. When finally found it, they tell me I need to bring my original receipt, warranty card and NRIC in order to arrange for gift redemption (which initially was not being mentioned at all, previously we are told that we can just redeem via the phone).

6) Both my husband and I find it an unpleasant encounter with Samsung and its service related.

Such service is a total contrast to the imagine Samsung has created

How can I make such bad service standard known to people so that they can change for better, and also alert consumer who are affected by these sub-standard service?

磨差

往往人都不知道小事磨差出的火花也可能造成生活里的
‘森林’- (心靈深處) 大火。。。

Charity - ninemillion.org

I found this search site via hotmail - (Have not verify if it is true or false, but below was stated on the website) http://click4thecause.live.com/Search/Charity/Default.aspx?locale=en-au

Give to ninemillion.org with every search. Each time you search here, Microsoft will contribute to ninemillion.org, a UN agency-led campaign providing education and sports programs for the nine million refugee youth around the world

http://www.ninemillion.org/

Relation

“Dun let me get use to life with someone who cannot love me with his heart and soul. I rather be left unhurt…” this sound heavy, but that is how I feel in relationship.

Experience from the past has taught me this; Like a practical session. It is not wrong for someone to choose to leave you, if he cannot love you with his heart and soul. It is truly wrong, if it is a known fact and yet anyone tries to hide it in order not to face the truth of it all.

放棄

朋友說放棄了可能你會得到更多。。。
他放棄的是我的幸福還是他的損失？？？

Let me work for the later... so I must improve myself in life. :p

Got My Keys

Yesterday was the first day I got my house key. I am excited at the same time bothered by a lot of stuff. (E.g. work, finance and other small issues)

At about 3pm I rush to HDB Hub for my 3.45pm 2nd appt, and move from one counter to another to get the paper work done while my hubby was slightly late, everyone down there seem so tense up due to the pace they do thing. But I must comment them for being efficient; within half an hour I complete the house transaction, bought the house fire insurance, connect the PUB utilities and got my keys for the new house.

We head to my in-laws shop to get the fruits (e.g. banana, pineapple and orange) , then to geylang (一天香) to buy joss stick and paper money for praying. Rush home to get ‘xia liu’- a plant, rice, buy coarse salt and paper plate. Reach my in new house at about 5.30pm, and hubby lead me in praying to the god on our first entrance to the new house. Pray for safety, happiness, peace and wealth living in the house. We forget some steps and miss out one thing or two during the simple ritual. Apologies to all the gods out there for our ignorance and do pardon us.

Finally the contractor arranged by my brother-in-law and hubby’s godmother can enter the house. We start to walk around and tell the contractor exactly what we want to do with out place. At about 8pm we are almost done and can proceed for dinner.

Negotiate Project Constraints

Today I happen to read the following article online... I find it useful and decide to load it in my blog for future reference: {^o^}

Yes, You Can Negotiate Project Constraints!

by Alan S. Koch, PMP

"This is what we need. You can use these resources. And you must deliver it by that date."
Does this sound familiar? If so, you are not alone. Many project managers find themselves in just such a situation. There are lots of dictates, no flexibility, and more often than not little realism in the demands.

What value is there in estimation when your sponsor seems to have no interest in finding out what it will really take to do the project? The constraints have been chiseled in stone and we can't change them. End of story. Our job boils down to trying to keep the project from being too much of a disaster.

Although it may not seem to be true, we can negotiate unrealistic project expectations. And the key is to do a good job of estimating what it really will take to do the project.

No One Wants A Failed Project
The first step to negotiating project constraints is to realize that your project sponsor does not want your project to fail. (If your sponsor does want your project to fail, then it is time to get out!) Like everyone else with an interest in your project, your sponsor wants success, and may need it more than you do!

Your sponsor has considered the costs and benefits of doing the project and concluded that there is a good business case for taking it on. Of course, both the costs and the benefits are initial estimates, not final reality. Your sponsor doesn't know what the actual costs will be any more than you do. But the initial estimate is as close as he or she can get during the project initiation phase.

If your sponsor thought the project was doomed to failure, he or she would not have gone forward with it. Failure is not the objective, success is! And your sponsor is counting on success.
Having received your mandate, your first job is to figure out how to make it succeed.

Discovering What It Will Take
Most of us believe that the purpose of estimating and planning is to answer the question, "What will it take?" When we are not asked that question, it might seem that estimation and planning are a waste of time. But nothing can be further from the truth. In fact, in the face of project mandates, careful estimation and full planning are our most potent tools!

Our first step toward being able to negotiate unrealistic project constraints is to fill in the knowledge gaps. We can discover the cost and schedule information that was not available to our sponsor when the project was initiated. This information is a gold mine, because it allows our sponsor to replace his or her initial rough estimates with much more concrete and specific ideas about the nature of the project and what it will take to achieve success.

There are many good estimation and planning methodologies, so we will not detail them here. In brief, we must do these sorts of things:

1. Identify a reference project—one we did previously that has as much similarity to the new project as possible.

2. List all of the activities that will have to happen on this new project, using the reference project as a pattern. Try to be sure that the activities you missed in planning the reference project don't get missed this time!

3. Estimate the effort that each of the project activities will take, again using the reference project as a pattern. Even if you don't have good historical data, you can come up with reasonable approximations based on who did what when on the reference project.

4. Spread that effort over time based on the availability of people and other resources. Don't forget that people cannot work 40 productive hours each week because of overhead and interruptions. Many experts recommend planning for only 20 hours of productive work per week per full-time person.

5. Consider any special complexities or challenges in this new project and adjust your estimates accordingly.

If you find that the cost and schedule you come up with are in line with the initial project constraints, then you can probably manage the project to a successful conclusion. Go for it!
If not, then there is bad news and there is good news. The bad news is that you must go back to your sponsor to renegotiate the project constraints. The good news is that you have the information that you and your sponsor need to figure out how to make the project successful!

Negotiating
The question about whether the project can succeed given the initial constraints is no longer a matter of your opinion vs. your sponsor's opinion. You are now coming to the table with the best available data. After your sponsor gains confidence in your data, renegotiating the project will simply be a mater of adjusting the project scope, schedule target, and/or budgetary constraints in order to make the puzzle pieces fit.

For most of us, the hard part will be selling our data to our sponsor. Too many of us have a history of challenged projects that undermines our credibility in the sponsor's eyes. We must focus on the facts as presented by history.

· "Why do you have to do all of these things?" can be answered with, "We learned on projects X, Y and Z that if we skip these steps, these bad things happen ..."
· "That shouldn't take that long!" can be answered with, "That's how long it took on projects A, B and C."
· "Can't we cut this corner?" can be answered with, "We cut that corner on project Q, and this was the result ..."
· "Why should I believe you this time?" can be answered with, "This time, I am using history as my guide instead of my best guess or the initial rough estimates."

The key is to avoid discussing opinion, focusing instead on historical fact. And don't expect that this project will progress any differently than your reference project (unless you do things differently this time, that is).

After you have brought the facts to the table, it is your sponsor's job to decide what to do with them. He or she has several options, including dropping the project, adjusting the project scope or constraints, or demanding a "death-march." In the end, such decisions are your sponsor's to make. By bringing real data to the table, you have done your part; and you have increased the odds of project success immeasurably by doing so.

~~~~~

Author’s Profile:
Alan S. Koch, PMP is a speaker and writer on effective Project Management methods. He is a certified Project Management Professional and President of ASK Process, Inc., a training and consulting company that helps companies to improve the return on their software investment by focusing on the quality of both their software products and the processes they use to development them. His 28 years in software development include 14 years designing, developing and maintaining software and over 13 years in quality assurance and software process improvement. He was with the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) for 13 years. His book Agile Software Development: Evaluating the Methods for your Organization was published by Artech House in 2005.
Article extracted from : www.projectconnections.com

New Year Resolution

Since 1st Jan I have been rather busy…
This is my first entry in 2007. So what is my New Year resolution?
Hum... Actually is to achieve self improvement in all wards of life.

I feel stagnant in some phase, so unsure of what I want and what to achieve. Feel tired of trying and fighting for all I want, but life cannot stop there. We got to learn and improve in whatever we do and carry on from there. To proceed faster, may bring in a certain fear factor, cos you will need to push yourself harder to change and adept to many new things. It may cost more then what you deem it to be.

Anyway this year I should have many things to look forward and get busy with.
1) House - My new home
2) My wedding banquet
What tired me most now is my work…
Should I buck up for my work or am I really tired and should try to break out of all these and venture out for others? I am just too timid to walk out…

Okie dokie, I should keep my smile and work my way out of all these. Just give your best in all you do and you will be the happy with no regrets.