JOB OPENING

Our International arm is now expanding into the middle east and now require someone to be a partner and manage our business arm in Saudi Arabia. We strongly recommend that Saudi Women bid for the job with REALISTIC Pricing. Job description: https://www.peopleperhour.com/freelance_jobs_work_projects/Someone-to-setup-and-manage-the-SAUDI-Office/45333 Please adhere to the site's requirements and if you think you have someone who can do so, please forward this over. This is for our ongoing projects, with many other investments and jobs for everyone. Thank you  and Salam Aidil Adha.

Something is dead wrong

I have been getting complaints that the blog is not viewable properly over the gray background, which I find it quite amusing because I did it to deter any screen grabber or autobots that love to leech people's content to say that it's theirs.

Anyway, Thank you for your comments and will try tweak them as soon as I can get my bandwidth up again. Like I said.. bandwidth cost money....

And to all my friends

SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDIL ADHA.. HAPPY THANKSGIVING.
Safe Driving to where ever you may be going.

From me

Azrin

Making that extra bit in Helium

I am seriously surprised that getting $7.02 a month based on 109 articles in Helium is such a real deal to the writers, where on average, it just yield 6.5 cents per month on the adsense earnings alone.

The thing is, I blog for a living and even at "low tides" such as now where we tend to focus into selling products on the internet for a living and making a killing from affiliate programs such as those on Commission Junction, Share-a-sale or other program. But then, even at these lows, my adsense clicks and conversions far exceed the $7 a month! This is totally crazy where if I am to follow that trend, it would take me over 18 months to cash out my earnings from Google.

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Is there some sort of foul play at helium? I was asking the other day so that I can directly insert my analytics instead with my publisher id where they can take the 50% share of the earnings directly instead as opposed to the current field of play. I've no qualms of them managing things but prefer if they can just pay the earnings, how small it is via Paypal at the end of the month.

Coming back to earning more, as a publisher and active affiliate, I have to keep with the trends and checking out new toys and stuff to sell is an important part of the research, not just SEO itself. It's no use writing articles that are not being weighed properly on the search engines, as you can try Google your topic and see how low your listings goes down the list.

Checking what is being paid by advertisers like me on Adwords is a key aspect of Google Analytics. Every high paying keywords (over $25 per click bids) include Web Hosting, Business Setup, Banking, Technology and mid range will include players from eBay, Amazon and such for products like iTunes, Apple iPhone 4, Blackberry Torch and iPad. These high value items including gold coins, jewelery and bullion.

As such, you should research, using 3rd party applications, of what advertising will come up on your advertorials. This will play a huge part in your daily earnings and not just paying peanuts of 2 cents per month.

According to the trends this weekend, Technology products, software are on the top list along with Business and Finance, especially about Home Refinance and Foreclosures in the US, managing the finances in the UK and Credit Cards, and not to forget Debit and Prepaid Credit Cards in the US for the financially unstable.

Apart from meeting the word requirements, putting in more information and repeating the keywords you are emphasizing will draw better advertising in place of the normal low bids.

I'm seriously fed up with the business model of Celcom Axiata Malaysia where they think that 3GB is such a fair usage policy that 3GB is nothing compared to the needs of the country Broadband demands. Heck, come on, even the basic low end user slurps up 300MB of data by just checking emails, Facebook and a few online news papers for information.

Honestly, what kind of business model are they thinking of, demanding RM50 which is almost a months rental for another few GB of data? Somewhat, despite the lacking and problems of their parent company, Telekom Malaysia, their wired service, Streamyx is without any throttle limits and I am seriously contemplating on going back into prepaid plans if not for the lack of coverage by Digi and Maxis and that my modem is network locked which is a real bummer.

It's bad enough the fees are far more than their neighbour where RM100 will get you speeds of 7.2M without any cuts *(they do say 5GB, but it's never enforced due to SLA and other bad PR they try to avoid) , filters and disabled towers problem. With a penetration of 42% of broadband and coverage of 35% of the outskirts of major cities, I mean seriously they need to rework their business attraction model.

YTL is introducing YES or short for YTL Enhanced-communications Systems which is done on 4G LTE network with voice and data speeds of 5x the speed of the current 3G networks, surpassing P1 Max. But being 4G they have a WiMAX inter operatability system in place where you should be able to roam into AMAX, P1 and RedTone. It should but I've not yet seen it done since Singapore is keeping their 3G still as they are leap frogging into OpenNET fiber optics by the Gigabits.

OK, that's for now..try and see if this email Blogger works.

Tags:CELCOM

Spring Cleaning of Facebook

Did you know you can only have so much of a friends list in Facebook? Yes..the 5000 limit is the given maximum of any Facebook user that can connect and upon hitting 3000, the system will try to stop you from doing so, accepting new friends and such due to spamming and abuse of the system.

Being a developer, I find that the limits is a good thing but we tend to circumvent the system by harvesting the email addresses and connecting them and filtering through email address systems. Yahoo offers a great way to import the current user list with email addresses and then post export them into other services such as LinkedIn or other mailing list to make greater contact.

I have had over 16000 contacts over the past 2 years and that is a large sum, and pruning , triming them will keep the limits far from being breached and me from getting a red card from the administration. Overall, these connections are just actually, 400 over real people other than spam, game clones and such evil derived from Zynga's Mafia Wars and the like.

400 People out of 16,000 actually exist, with 1100 validated email addresses.So it's ok to prune occasionally but do import the contact list and mail merge them before hand. Having said that, LinkedIn is a great way to know people, professionally and not just plain kids on the block pretending to be 30 year olds.

Other than that, do have fun and keep your real friends who you comment and talk about on the lists.

Wise Disk Cleaner Free 5.71

I downloaded from CNET recently many things and one I need to say is that I don't regret testing out applications for my own laptop. Some are bugsy and some are just plain OK.

One of the things downloaded was the WISE Disk Cleaner Free 5.71 which is a freeware but if you upgrade, there will be some extras on top. It reminds me of the old Norton Speed Disk Doctor (SDD) which works fine with XP but does not have that feature for Vista or 7 but the GUI looks the same.. it will scan and check the system and recommend if it wants to defragment or optimise it.

However, it does not wipe or optimise the free slack space where in Norton it compacts the files so that the free space is all at the end of the drive. It also can't move the system files, MFT and stuff to priority level one so it's loaded upfront such as the registry files.. but I can't expect much from a free-shareware right.

Other than that..it's great tool if you prefer to see what is going on rather than just the status report of microsoft's defrag.

One GREAT feature is that it can CLEAN OFF all the unwanted files and junk that Disk Clean up will forget, like log files and such, so that is one of the strong points... so try Disk Cleaner Free out.

Download is swift at CNET since it's just 4MB only... a few mins off ADSL or Wireless Broadband and you are into it!

Understanding Islamic Finance

May people don't understand that Islamic Finance is not Islamic Banking. There is no Banking in Islam as trade of Money is Riba and Haram just that Investment and Finance, which is all based on the trade of a commodity such as property, project or bullion.


I wrote an article the other day on Helium and this is what I said...

There are not much differences in conventional or Islamic banking but typically, there is no such thing as Islamic Banking, just a figure of speak, but more of a Trade and Finance. Going back to the days of Christianity, Usury or Charging Interest was a practice by the Jewish community for things sold or trades where payment was to be made at a later date, thus started the Banking System, where the community will pool their money to someone who they know, a company or sort for a portion of their profits, whom by lending money to others at a higher rate.

In Islam, this is forbidden as it causes much pain and misery to the borrower where in those days, rates can be as high as 20% per week as how it's still happening today, going by the name of loan sharks. Borrowers in those days who default are being sold as slaves for the rest of their lives along with their families.

The act of Riba or literally "Increasing" causes the fall of the financial institutions going way back to the Barings Bank scandal by Nick Leeson and other institutions like the recent AIA , ABN AMRO, Royal Bank of Scotland and all thanks to the domino effect by the Lehman Brothers.

However, in Islam, there won't be such a problem as the risk factor is shared among the depositor who is called the investor based on an agreement between the institution and the financer. Of course, just as how you run a business, you won't like it if your silent partner is taking more than he should, since you have to cover the costs and other overheads, and thus, in a savings account, the expected rate of return normally works to about 5-8% of the investment amount. This is normally called the Mudharabah account.  Literally, this is the instant access account based on the bank's speculation on the markets and other projects. The equivalent are the Cash Instant Access ISA accounts in UK or even your current account.

Fixed deposits or Term Deposit Account (Certificates of Deposit) are Haram in Islam as they promised a fixed amount of return in terms of percentage or anything that is certain. In Islam, everything has no certainty as that is the will of Allah, thus why Muslims are to say Insyallah or God Willing in anything that is to be done in the future. However, in a General Investment Account , which is similar to a Fixed Term Depository, the depositor agrees to the percentage of profits they expect out of the investment pool. This is a shared risk between the depositor and the financial institution where the bank will take up insurance plan (takaful) to back the investment plan. 

Normally, the bank will invest in property or low risk, high return investments such as sukuk or bonds, Gold Bullion, Foreign Exchange or Leasing plans. These are usually advertised by the bank of their investment holdings and works similar to a unit trust fund. However, the investment managers are prohibited from taking on risks that are haram or even makhruh (hated) by the Prophet. These includes Pig Farms, Brewery, Winery , Vineyards (for wine) and try to refrain from property leasing or investment related to the tobacco industry and anything that causes harm to humanity including firearms, military and likewise.

As for financing schemes, they come in many forms, such as SUKUK which are bonds, Ijarah which literally means leasing, Musyarah Mustaqinah with Ijarah for home loans where it shares the equity with the bank, with decreasing equity amount as stated in the agreement. You will hear or see these terms in an Islamic financial agreement.

Ijarah - (Operating Lease) - which means the act of leasing of an asset pursuant to a contract under which a specified permissible benefit in the form of a usufruct is obtained for a specified period in return for a specified permissible consideration. It is a manfaah (usufruct) type of contract whereby a lessor (owner) leases out an asset to its customer at an agreed rental fee and pre-determined lease period upon the `aqad (contract). The ownership of the leased equipment remains in the hands of the lessor. Works just like any other hire-purchase agreement.

Ijarah Muntahiah Bi Tamlik (Financial Lease) - works just like an Ijarah but after the completion of the lease, the equipment or item in particular is transferred to the lessee by means of a gift or norminal sale agreement, usually in place for Project financing, Asset acquisition or Contract Financing (Factoring).

Ijarah Mausufah Fi Zimmah (Forward Lease) is particularly used for property under construction, even when the property or asset is not owned by the lessee, such as a property developer or strata title. During the construction period, the lessor (bank) can ask the lessee to pay a portion of the normal lease or rent that has been agreed upon during the 'aqad. The forward lease rental payment is considered a debt till it is completed (agreement term) and then forth will the property be delivered to the lessee as a debt satisfied. This is usually in place for property financing and the lease cannot be increased or otherwise during the term of agreement.

Istisna’a (Purchase Order) - which means a purchase contract of an asset whereby a buyer will place an order to purchase the asset which will be delivered in the future. In other words, the buyer will require a seller or a contractor to deliver or construct the asset that will be completed in the future according to the specifications given in the sale and purchase contract. Both parties of the contract will decide on the sale and purchase prices as they wish and the settlement can be delayed or arranged based on the schedule of the work completed.

Musyarakah (Partnership / Profit And Loss Sharing)  - Musyarakah means partnership. Musyarakah refers to the commingling of capital provided by the partners for the purpose of sharing in profit. Musyarakah is established by means of an agreement or arrangement whereby two or more persons agree that each of them contributes to the capital of the partnership either in the form of cash or in kind and shares in its profit and loss.  Any profit derived from the venture will be distributed based on a pre-agreed profit sharing ratio, but a loss will be shared on the basis of equity participation.

Musyarakah Mutanaqisah (Diminishing Partnership)  - Musyarakah mutanaqisah or diminishing partnership is a form of Musyarakah (partnership) in which one of the partner promises to purchase the equity share of other partner gradually until the title of the equity is completely transferred to him. This transaction starts with the formation of partnership, after which buying and selling of the equity take place between the two partners. One partner may lease his share of the asset to the other partner on Ijarah (lease) basis. The partnership will come to an end with one partner being the sole owner of the asset or business venture.

Kafalah (Guarantee) - The Shariah principle of guarantee whereby the guarantor will guarantee the performance, action and undertaking to 3rd party. The guarantor will underwrite any claim and obligation that should be fulfilled by the principal. This concept is also applicable to a guarantee provided on a debt transaction in the event a debtor fails to fulfill his debt obligation. The same definition can be applied for Dhaman

In terms of Savings and Investments these terms come to play, which goes by a few terms.

Mudharabah (Profit Sharing) which goes in Finance and Investment plans.Mudharabah means partnership in profit whereby one party provides capital (rabb al-mal) and the other party acts as an entrepreneur (mudharib) who solely manages the project. If the venture is profitable, the profit will be distributed based on a pre-agreed ratio. In the event of a business loss, the loss shall be borne solely by the provider of the capital unless it is due to the misconduct or negligence of the mudharib.

Qardh (Benovalent Loan) - Qardh means non-interest bearing loan or benevolent loan which refers to a loan given by a person (lender) to the borrower without any expectation of extra returns.  The borrower is only obliged to pay the loan at its original amount to the lender within the agreed stipulated period of time.Current Accounts are part of a Qardh.

Another funny term which many sees in Divorce and Court settlements are Wakalah, which is a contract of agency which gives the power to a person to nominate another person to act on his behalf as long as he is alive based on the agreed terms and conditions. Some also term is as Power of Attorney.

In terms of economics, the Bank shares the risk with the investment account holder, similar to what the Building Societies, Cooperatives and Mutual Societies in the British Banking System where they do micro lending and calculated risk with customers they can trust. Islamic Financing is all about trust and that is what makes it strong as trade of money without anything backing it is wrong. Even now, investments of Gold are common nowadays but it's what makes Islamic Bonds stronger. Some banks even offer Instant Access Qardh accounts based on real physical gold, where they deposit cash to exchange for real gold, held by the bank within the vaults plus a small handling fee and when the investor wish to sell when the gold is higher, they can sell it to the bank directly at the rates they agree on or they can take out physical gold bars.

Not an acrostics of Divorce

A situation down the road Of once who we are lovers and great friends 
Broken Promises, Hardships and Pain Joy, Health and Memories 
Now is just a sweet and painful memory Of what is left,  
Of a divorced Me, No more We.
Much the pain is now fallen upon me
Of what to happen not just me,
But the bigger part of me, 
Our Kids, Our Lives, and of Our Families.


Now what I am now.. 
A Single Me.

The smell of Pine

Smell of freshness of Spring Pointing upwards, 
That of heavenly heavens pointing towards the sky above, 
Greens and Whites of the seasons, 
Such as nothing to stop it, 
The feeling of being alive, 
Pines, Needles and all Live.


Such that I feel that spring is not just of Pine,
Of cheap bunks of IKEA and you know what,
For it reminds me of how much I miss that smell,
That brought me much joy, not just being a Lone One.

Good old days

Of which, I do remember the good old days of the Nanyang Polytechnic, specifically French Singapore Institute Jurong SEG Campus which I think the foto is taken in 1995 I think .. with many of the good old memories down there.

Sometimes, we make tons of mistakes and well, I did regret till today.

Tagging those who are in the fotos, Zuraidah Mistam, Huzaimah, Faridah Karim , Afiz Rahim, Shahrul Nizam my little Bro..and 2 others I can't remember their names...


Hmmn..good old days bro?