Siapa itu Zakiah?

Sudahku temui jawapannya. Penari gurun pasir ternama rupanya….

SMS-ing while driving? A big NO, NO…

Sleep-surfing…

Angkat tangan buat sesapa yang tak boleh hidup tanpa email, fb, blogs etc… Kalau sehari tak online, mau kena migraine gitu. Haa! Yang tu sy rasa tanda2 awal Internet addiction. Simptom2nya:

• Agak2 kalau bangun pagi tu, instead of amik towel and terus mandi, kamu terus saja ke laptop. Mana tau ada incoming emails ataupun new blog’s entries. Semacam ada satu compulsive need gitu . Dan yang bestnya lg, laptop tu dah memang terpasang pun, tak pernah off. Ganaz2, 24/7 online beb!
• Kalau ke kamu ke hotel yang tak pernah dikunjungi sebelum ni, soklan pertama yang ditanya, “Err, ada wireless tak di bilik saya?”. Dan bila receptionist kata tak ada, kamu rasa dunia kamu menjadi gelap gulita secara automatis. Kemudian, bila cik receptionist tu kata, “Encik boleh access internet di lobi hotel”, perlahan2 kamu rasakan darah mula mengalir semula ke otak. And, jangan lupa tarik nafas…
• Dengan perkembangan teknologi yang sungguh terpantas sekarang, anda mengharapkan akan ada all-in-one  ubicomp device. Contohnya sekarang, anda perlukan telefon genggam untuk bercakap dan komputer riba untuk Internet. Walaupun ada telefon genggam di pasaran yang menawarkan ciri2 ini, tp hampir kesemuanya unusable. Justeru itu anda tertunggu2 bilalah iPhone 3G nak kuar kat Malaysia ni. Nak rembat Omnia ngan HTC cam mahal jer…
• 4 jam online kamu rasakan terlampau kejap sangat. What! Dah pukul 1 pagi? Dan kamu mengharapkan esok ialah hari Sabtu dan kamu tak perlu ke ofis. Like what I am doing right now, huhu…

While I was doing a light research on net addiction, I came accross this well-written paper which discusess the topic at length. Mind-blowing facts!

CBS News’ anchor, Katie Couric talks about Net Addiction

NY Post’s coverage on Net Addiction

Public Speaking…

Semenjak dua menjak ni, terutamanya selepas habis belajar, sy berminat bebenar dengan public speaking. Seingat sy, dulu memang saya ketaq lutut habis bila disuruh bercakap di depan. Kalau boleh memang tak mau la. Mana taknya, takut silap2 bila dah berdiri kat depan tu, tetiba je jadi blank . Susah ooo cam gitu. Memang patut pun sy rasa antara perkara yang paling ditakuti oleh semua adalah pengucapan awam.

Kita nervous terutamanya bila kita tak pernah atau jarang bercakap di depan. Itu memang kenyataan. Analogi yang mudah, contoh macam kita bawak kereta. Masa memula belajar memandu, ingat lagi tak masa disuruh instruktor bawa di jalan yang penuh dengan kereta? Mesti tertekan punya. Tangan sentiasa kejap di stereng. Mata fokus 100% di jalan. Tapi, bila dah lama memandu, sambil drive siap boleh borak lagi. Ada yang multitasking. BerSMS lagi…

The same goes with public speaking. It requires training, perseverance and patience. And don’t worry much about making mistakes. Thomas Edison once said, “I have not failed 1,000 times.  I have successfully discovered 1,000 ways to not make a light bulb”. Which means, even if you try and fail, it doesn’t mean that you didn’t learn something from it.

Talking about training, take Steve Jobs for example, the great presenter himself. Whenever he has a speech to be delivered, he will practice a few rounds before going up the stage. Another example, soccer players in action. Hmm, let’s look at Ronaldo, shall we. We all know how good he is with the ball. You might think a player with so much tricks at his disposal may skip training and instead head straight to the stadium on game day. NOT! He trains, trains and keep on training.

Practice makes perfect. The more you practice, the better you will become. Usaha Tangga Kejayaan…

Great links for those of you who are looking for inspiration:

• Ted.com
• Presentation Zen
• Poptech.com

Lost no more…

Sesat di Kay Ell? Biasa tu, selalu sangat. Now, worry not. Dah ada cheap and fast solution.

• Fire up your browser
• Open Google Maps
• Type in you destination (and point of origin if necessary)
• A little of kind of magic will take place. Please be patience.
• Walla! There you have it. Point to point direction. You won’t get lost no more

I depended a lot on this feature on Google Maps when I was in States. Before this, it’s not available for us here in Malaysia. It was just recently we get to use this helpful feature…

The States implemented a wonderful system for their roads/highways. All their roads are numbers-assigned, even numbered for east-west routes and odd for north-south. Kewl, huh?

Want to learn American English?

When I first set foot in American soil, I seriously thought that my Queen’s English or what’s left of it , will be just enough to get me through my life over there…

Boy, oh boy! Was I wrong. Dalam ramah2 Orang Amerika ni, ada satu je yang sy tak berkenan. Kalau kita nak bercakap dengan depa, mesti guna American English. Kalau tak, mau dia suruh kita ulang 3/4 kali, baru dia dapat tangkap.

So, what I did was:

• Listen to podcast. My fav: Cnet Podcast Central
• Listen to radio. My fav: Albany’s Fly92
• Listen to Grammar Girl

Then I bought an iPod and downloaded all the podcasts into it. Memang mujarab, Insya Allah…

Kalau nak yang lebih structured, baca buku ni. Berguna bebenar!

Turun lagi? Baguih2…

Dia turun lagi. Esok dah jadi RM1.80. Baguih betui la lagu ni.

Semenjak dua menjak jadi orang Shah Alam ni, masa minyak RM2.70/liter dulu, mau kena isi RM80 seminggu. Mana taknya, nak ulang alik Shah Alam – Kay Ell tiap2 hari. Sekarang, boleh la bernapas skit.

La, awat jauh sangat duduknya tu Ayien? Dulu duduk kat kuarters gomen Jln Duta elok2, pindah keluaq lak. Shah Alam – Kay Ell tu rasanya ada la dalam 70km pi balik.

Tu tak kira tol lagi. Kalau ikut Federal Highway kena RM2.20/hari. Kalau NKVE RM6.60. Jadi, kenapa ye dok Shah Alam? Ha, kalau nak tau pasai apa, cuba mai jejalan kat sini tengok . Kalau kena gaya, mau jatuh cinta terus, hehehe…

Layan lagi…

If you have been following my blog over the past a year or so, you might have guess correctly the kind of songs that I listen to . Jiwang karat mamat ni, hehehe…

Layan beb…

Antara lagu yang menjadi peneman setia semasa sy tengah pulun menyiapkan assignment di RPI’s Folsom Library…

Eff Bee anyone?

Hands up for those of you who are so into Eff Bee nowadays. Huih, ramainya.

Rasa-rasanya kenapa ye Ef Bee tersangat popular sekarang? Based on my limited knowledge on human psychology, interaction designs, affective computing and design principles, senang cakap HCI’s view, Zuckerberg and his team succeed in tackling the MOST important aspect when it comes to designing successful products. And you may ask yourself, “What might that be?” …

Okay, before I answer that, hands up again for those who use Google on daily basis and of course can’t live without Gmail or Google Readers. Why Google? Why not the other search engines? What do these two successful companies (Eff Bee and Google) have in common? What could be that MOST important distinctive reason?

I believe the answer resides on the first item on Google’s corporate philosophy…

Focus on the user and all else will follow

So, there you go. And, let’s go back to the Eff Bee thingy. Why it is getting so ever popular with people all over the world?

• It focuses on the main goal of the user i.e. to get connected with others in a conducive environment while operating in an effective and efficient manner
• The ads are unobtrusive ie no distracting banners filled with bells and whistles
• It adapts well to changes and listen to the users needs ie remember the Beacon fiasco?
• The ever reliable “Ignore All” button, hehehe…

And yes, please add me as your friend. The more the merrier …