BOOKS@JALAN REBUNG

2011-12-13T21:55:00.000-08:00

SUPER FRANK

2011-12-13T21:17:00.001-08:00

This is some book. As a lifelong fan of Douglas Thompson, the Jimmy Greaves of pulp fiction, I am not surprised he brought to life one of football's famously reclusive personalities.

King of the King's Road - no suggestion here of the nasty rumours sweeping the net about Frank's leanings! - and a vital player in England's bid for victory at the 2006 World Cup, Frankie Lampard is a footballer of genuine, dynamic majesty, limited only as Douglas says by his penchant for stodgey food. The East End boy who's become a West End star, he's hailed by fans, women, critics, players and managers worldwide as a player of great value.

So does this book tell us anything new? Yes and no. Yes, we learn that Franky is a rich chap and no we don't know what makes him tick. Even so it's a great beach read. Personally I think Douglas should stick to novels which is where his strength is. Why waste such talent on a footballer of such limited brain power? Douglas was built for bigger things than this.

LAURA : AMERICA'S FIRST LADY,FIRST MOTHER

2011-12-13T21:15:00.000-08:00

This book will delight every Laura Bush fan who has followed her journey from the woman who first appeared as a shy, self-conscious shadow behind George W. Bush to her new image as a role model for all American women everywhere. Now we can learn more about Laura without having to resort to reading the tabloids. Antonia Felix has written a fascinating, informative book filled with insider tidbits from Laura's friends and family, showing us a more fully drawn woman than the one we are used to seeing on TV for quick glimpses.

The author takes us on a journey from Laura's birth and childhood to the woman she is today. Her commitment to her marriage and her family is so important to American families today, with all the stresses and bad influences around them. Her mother's recollections of Laura are very revealing and probably the best thing about this book, written with obvious care to detail by Ms.Felix.

IF you're looking for a harsh expose, you'll be disappointed. The author is as respectful of her subject as the First Lady is those around her,starting with her own family. It's about time someone wrote a nice book about a very nice woman who happens to be our First Lady, and is certainly our First Mother.

WALK ON WATER

2011-12-13T21:13:00.000-08:00

A real fan of Ruhlman's previous books, I knew that this would make for good reading. Squeemish at times for those of us not use to inside O.R. environments with all the procedures and organs being talked about, this rivets one to pediatric heart surgery.

Fashioned around a premier surgeon at a leading hospital, the reader is taken on a whirlwind of living on the edge of technology and skill and emotions as heart defects are diagnosed during pregnancy while others found at birth and thereafter are the daily routine of this top notch surgical team which Ruhlman lived with and writes about.

One is touched by the intensity of the whole enterprise, the stark reality of it all, day after day, year after year. The enormity of it all. Patching this, switching that, shunting here, stiching this together---all to keep young precious life.

The history of the discipline and current happenings are reviewed, with its emphasis on comparative mortality stats for various surgical procedures. Scary to think one's future might well be determined by where one lives and where taken when heart defects occur.

The precision and dedication of those who live in this arena is beyond most of our scopes to even begin to fathom, but this book seems to take one there in spirit and interest. The compassionate care looms ever large.

Thoughtful, provocative and reflective view of speciality surgery at the leading edge and all the while on edge.

THE UMPIRE STRIKE BACK (RON LUCIANO)

2011-09-06T23:41:00.000-07:00

Ron Luciano was born in New York 1937. He join Syracuse in 1957 and was a very good football defensive player. He played in Pro College All Star game. He was drafted by Colt then traded to Detroit Lions only to retire early due to injury.

He was approached by Lions owner to enter Florida State league baseball as an umpire. Moved gradually from minors to major league. His big size was imposing when striking out player. He likes Reggie Jackson and Nolan Ryan. He even admit Nolan’s fastball was difficult to monitor,
Has big problem with Earl Weaver. He later join broadcasting with NBC. Elected president for MLB umpires for 2 terms.

AUDIBLES (JOE MONTANA)

2011-09-06T23:39:00.000-07:00

Joe Montana was born in Pennsylvania to an Italian immigrant family. First played football in Ringgold High School before joining Notre Dame. Played descent football and was selected 3rd round (82nd pick) by 49ers. When he joined Steve de Berg was the no1 QB and OJ Simpson was in his last season.

Won his first Superbowl in 1982 beating Bengals 26-21. He respect Bill Walsh as a good coach although never been appreciated by BW (he once said Montana was no Einstein !!!). The best moment was in Superbowl 1984 Montana vs Dan Marino (Miami Dolphins) and 49ers won 38-10. Joe Montana was criticized for parking his Ferrari in handicapped zone and he was not supporting the player strike in 1982.

THE HP WAY (DAVID PACKARD)

2011-08-22T21:08:00.000-07:00

Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett both Stanford graduates decided to form a company called HP. One of the first product is Audio Oscillator sold to Disney Studios (their first customer). Their first calculator Model 35 in 1972.

Dave Packard was selected as US Sec of Defense in 1969. Seeing potential in computing industry they decided to build their own and 2116 Minicomputer was the first by HP. They venture in printing business by partnering with Canon. The first printer was fridge size HP 2680.

In 1963 they team with Yokogawa to start business in Japan. Now it's known as HP Japan. HP was the first company in US to use flexi working hours. They pilot test it at their plant in Germany and then exercise it to the whole corporations. They also believe in MBWA (the 2 of them practice it during their GE days)

HP (with Dave Packard as Sec of Defence) contributes in the development of F16 and F18 fighter jets.

THE CENTRAL PARK JOGGER

2011-02-13T19:08:00.000-08:00

In April of 1989, a young woman was brutally assaulted and raped while jogging in New York's Central Park. The attack captured headlines around the world as the anonymous "Central Park Jogger" fought to recover from massive injuries that left her near death. Fourteen years later, in a first person account, Trisha Meili broke her silence in the best-seller I am the Central Park Jogger: A Story of Hope and Possibility.

In the book, Trisha Meili discusses the incident in her own words and reveals who she was before the attack and who she became as a result of it. She tells the story of a competitive and driven young executive at a finance firm whose life was destroyed, and how she ultimately rebuilt it.

GUT FEELING (CARNIE WILSON)

2011-01-21T00:44:00.000-08:00

When Wilson's gastric bypass surgery was broadcast over the Internet in 2001, it made news not simply because of Wilson's role as singer/songwriter with the pop group Wilson Phillips, nor because she is the daughter of The Beach Boys's Brian Wilson, but also because she had been (and remains) an advocate for self-acceptance, regardless of size. Despite years of dieting, Wilson suffered with morbid obesity, which threatened her health with skyrocketing cholesterol levels, hypertension, sleep apnea, sciatica, breathlessness, and joint pain. Gut Feelings is a wonderfully candid revelation of Wilson's life from childhood to maturity.

Her weight problems were family rooted with nature and nurture both contributing and she frankly discusses her feelings about herself, her family, and her friends. After undergoing the bypass surgery, she lost over 150 pounds and had to relearn how to eat and, equally important, how to adjust emotionally to the new Carnie. Beyond the personal story, this book offers appendixes in which a bariatric surgeon, nutritionist, endocrinologist, and psychologist answer questions about open and laparoscopic gastric surgery. These appendixes are invaluable for anyone interested in weight-control surgery, but readers will get at least as much insight into it through the author's tale.

THE LAST VICTIM (JASON MOSS)

2011-01-21T00:26:00.000-08:00

Moss was an 18-year-old college student at UNLV. While studying for his honors thesis, he established relationships with John Wayne Gacy, Richard Ramirez, Henry Lee Lucas, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Charles Manson. He obtained samples of correspondence from and interviews with these men. Jason researched what would interest his subject the most and then cast himself in the role of disciple, admirer, surrogate, or potential victim.

In his book he mentioned that he was interested in a career with the FBI; he reasoned that gaining the trust of a serial killer, possibly learning more about their stated crimes or unsolved murders, was a way to distinguish himself as a job candidate.

It was with 33-time killer John Wayne Gacy, the "Killer Clown", that Jason forged the strongest relationship. Letters led to regular Sunday morning phone calls, during which Gacy trumpeted his innocence even as he gave Jason a guided tour of his world. In the book, Moss tells the story of his correspondence and eventual live meeting with Gacy shortly before Gacy was executed. According to the viewpoint informing the title of this book, Moss became Gacy's "last victim" after a face to face meeting in prison, in essence being overpowered by the mind of the serial killer. Moss felt that this misadventure allowed him to understand how a killer's mind works in not only controlling the vulnerable but also in terms of how to break them.

SHEER BOTTLED BLISS (IAN PARAMENTER)

2011-01-13T20:28:00.001-08:00

Australia′s best-loved TV chef, Ian Parmenter, shares his experiences, starting with culture shock as the London journalist arrives in Perth in 1971, then moving on to the discovery of his beloved weekender by the Margaret River, and gradually transforming it into a winery producing 3000 bottles of chardonnay a year.

Enjoy his adventures and misadventures - which include the Home-made Cheese Disaster, battles with farm machinery, the annual gravel party - and the joys and triumphs of the first grape harvest. It′s a hilarious tale of country life and the ′sea change′ that we all dream about, with the added touch of classic recipes and fun variations on such dishes as Roast Lamb and the World′s Best Gravy, and Flaming Fruits with Meringue.

CALIFORNIA DREAMING (LAWRENCE DONEGON)

2011-01-13T20:24:00.000-08:00

California Dreaming is the tale of Lawrence Donegan, an ex bass player turned journalist, living out a grim life in Glasgow. He’s always dreamed of going to live in America but it’s only when an old friend turns up and hugs him in the street (hug? In Glasgow?) that he gets his chance – his friend now runs a silicon chip company in Los Angeles and offers Lawrence a job.

Lawrence heads out with his girlfriend and soon discovers that he has no idea at all of what a silicon chip is or what on earth he might be doing in an office full of people who listen to Kenny G. More than that he can’t understand how everyone talks about how much money they make and how much they spent on their cars, homes and hair cuts. He finds himself wondering if he’s the only sane person in a neighbourhood of “..27 Mexican landscape gardeners, one black guy who worked in the café on the main street and ten thousand rich white folks with nice tans and big white teeth.”

He soon discovers that his American dream is to become a used car salesman. This comes about primarily with the ease that he’s talked into buying a car and the profit that the salesman makes. After wading through weeks of bureaucracy to get a salesman licence (?) he’s given a job after 30 seconds at the first place he walks into and is told to get out there and start selling with no training at all.

I rate this book 7/10 ( a very good example of a person that wanted to try something new)

ONE HIT WONDERLAND (TONY HAWK)

2011-01-13T20:13:00.000-08:00

In the life and career of Tony Hawks, a couple of periods stand out as being highlights. In recent times, after a career as a comedian, he accepted a couple of stupid bets, firstly to hitchhike around Ireland with a fridge and later to play the entire Moldovan football team at tennis. It is not so much these events that were to be the highlights, but that he was able to write a book based on each of them. And very funny and well written books they were, too.

However, well before this, there was Morris Minor and the Majors, who had a Top 5 hit with a song called “Stutter Rap”. Drawing on Hawks’ first loves of music and comedy, he had for fifteen years been little but a “One Hit Wonder” – an artist who has one hit record and is never heard from again. Tony Hawks, however, isn’t happy with being a “One Hit Wonder”, as he feels he has the talent, if not as a singer, then as a songwriter, to hit the charts again. So he takes on another bet – to have a hit record, either as a writer or a performer, within 2 years.

As with his previous books, we follow Tony as he aims to win his bet. This takes him to the heart of country in Nashville, to the Sudan, and all over Europe. We also get to meet all the people Tony meets along the way, from Sir Tim Rice to Simon Cowell, who was just an A+R man at that point, and not the evil “Pop Idol” judge he became famous for being.The story is told in Hawks’ usual style, with what feels like complete honesty and in a chatty style that’s easy to read.

However, this is slightly less so than in his previous works, as he’s relying on a lot more people to assist him in winning his bet than before. This means that a lot more of the time is spent setting up meetings and discussing how to win the bet, rather than going out to win it and so a lot more of the telling is conversations with other people rather than Tony’s recounting of what happened.

I rate this book 7/10 (love the element of humor)

WORD FREAK (stefan fatsis)

2010-11-03T20:55:00.000-07:00

A story about scrabble players from playing socially in the park to being a competitive professional player earning money through competition. Most of the competition is sponsored by HASBRO and supported by NSA. Skill rating is given to pro players where novice will get 1200 points and will turn to expert if the points is more than 1700.

Scrabble was invented by Alfred Mosner Butts during depression (probably to reduce stress) and has been evolve until today. NSA (National Scrabble Association) was initiated to monitor especially the wording selection during competition. This is done through association with Merriam-Webster.

In 1999 a Canadian name Wapnick won USD 15000 first prize money.

50 ACRES AND A POODLE (j.m laskas)

2010-11-03T20:39:00.000-07:00

A story about a 38 years old writer who has a dream to live in a farm in the countryside . So one weekend she and her boyfriend went for a farm shopping where it’s started just for fun but then turn into serious buying. They came across a beautiful 50 acres with scenery farm that is up for sale with a very reasonable price.

They made the decision and sold everything in the city and move to the farm. The story then focus more into how the tried to adjust to country living like possum and squirrel , the booming sound of hunter rifle and friendly neighbor (which is not normal in the city) .

Name the farm SWEET-WATER FARM.

THE SEARCH

2010-05-10T23:28:00.000-07:00

A story about GOOGLE. Inspired by Altavista.com the first truly good search engine developed by DEC to test the Alpha (their latest computer) speed. Google was created by Larry page and Sergey Brin which attempted to improvise algorithm to search information on the internet

The name google is taken from the word GOOGOL ( 1 followed by 100 zeroes). They expand their company in 2003 where google bought blogger,picasa and keyhole to expand their services. The latest CEO is Eric Schmidt a Berkeley student just like the founders.

In 2002 the have problems with the Chinese government where the Chinese authority start to filter google.com content and they sorted out the problem and uses www.google.cn as the solution.

SHARKPROOF (HARVEY MACKAY)

2010-03-22T00:07:00.000-07:00

A book on how to get a job you want and keep it. If you fail your first attempt (interview) you are average and even famous people do have rejection experience. Getting a job is a job itself. It's good if you can establish good network like joining http://www.volunteer.org/ another good tips from the book is creating good rapport with the receptionist like thanking her after the interview session do have an advantage since receptionist is the center of almost all the organizations activities.

WOW factor is another issue that need to seriously considered. Appearance and confidence level during the interview day is very important and you should try to be different in a positive way. Joining toastmaster is a good move since it trains you to speak well with confidence.

Lastly if you thought working for your boss is tough try working for yourself.

JOE DI MAGGIO (Richard Cramer)

2010-02-21T23:49:00.000-08:00

Born to an italian immigrant family in San Francisco. He started playing baseball with Seals with brother Dominic (who later play for Red Sox). He join Yankees during the time when Babe Ruth performance was rock bottom.

Officially sign for Yankees in 1936 for USD 65,000. Yankees won the World Series that year and as a rookie Joe contributed with .323 AVG, 29 HR and 125 RBIs. Look at Ty Cobb as his mentor. He took over cleanup position from Lou Gehrig.

Married to Dorothy Arnold (an actress) and later to the famous Marilyn Monroe. In 1944 was attached with Air Force in Hawaii. Was plan to be traded to Washington Senators due to bad performance.

MY STORY : LIM GOH TONG

2010-02-01T18:57:00.000-08:00

A biography of Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong the founder of Genting Group. He's famous for the development of Genting Highland. Originally from Anxi in Fujian District, he came to Malaysia in 1937 with only 120 dollar in his pocket. After a while he went back to China due to home sickness and decided to stay. However due to pressure from family and current situation (invasion of Japan) he then came back to Malaysia.

A self confess introvert but later decided change , he started his first business in procurement of bulldozer mostly from Singapore, buying it cheap from Singapore and selling it with a good price in Malaysia. Later move into mining business and construction. He form a company called Kien Huat. One of his biggest project is the Air Hitam Dam in Penang at time worth RM 12 Millions.

The idea of Genting Highland triggered while he's relaxing during the Cameron Higland construction project. With the help from Tan Sri Noah , he approached Pahang and Selangor State to approve the project of developing Gunung Ulu Kali (later name Genting Highland). The total area is about 5000 hectares. Few people believe that this project will be succeful. Initially he plan to build a 38 rooms hotel but after Tunku Abdul Rahman triggered the idea of building a casino , he change his plan and build a 200 rooms hotel.

Building the access road was a major problem. He also send his team to Macau to study the casino business. The casino business started in 1969 and was the only company to be given license to operate casino in Malaysia. The expansion of the resort was ongoing and in 2002 they completed the First World Hotel , the biggest hotel in the world at that time.

Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong acknowledge the help from his friend for his success. And with his son, Kok Thay taking over the business (and expanding it) , Genting Group has been one of the biggest company in Malaysia until today.

ARSENE WENGER

2010-01-11T00:43:00.000-08:00

Born in Duttlenheim a small town in france. He start palying football with Duttlenheim FC. And OK football player and even had a European match experience while playing with FC Starsbourg in 1978. Was appointed as manager for AS Nancy in 1983.

He then move to Monaco where he recruited Glen Hoddle, George Weah and many more great players. He is known as master tactician and believe to a strict diet. One of his fierce rival in French league was Bernard Tapie of Marseille.

He then moved to Japan to coach Grampus Eight, but due to problems such as culture and language he could only bring few success. He then join Arsenal replacing the great Bruce Rioch. At Arsenal he straight away implement strict diet to players and improvised the youth system. He really believe in 4-4-2 system.

Good connections with old club such as Monaco give him the chance of signing good player such as Henry and Adebayor. Monaco, Grampus and Arsenal are red/white coloured team !!!! Will never has a wine session with Fergie. He obtained his OBE in 2003.

SOFTWAR : A STORY OF LARRY ELISON

2010-01-10T18:08:00.000-08:00

A story of Larry Elison the founder of Oracle Corp. He attended Uni of Illinois and Uni of Chicago but does not completed. However he love programming especially relational database. 1977 he and friends formed a company call SD Lab later change to RSI (Relational Software Incorporated).

The company starts the first prototype of Oracle. Works closely with Digital VAX. Later they change the name to ORACLE. At the same time IBM release DB2 also completion from Sybase. Oracle move focus to Japan with a big contract from Nippon Steel.

When SAP was formed by 5 ex IBM engineers in Germany and when they introduce SAP/R3, it changes they whole game. SAP collaborates with consulting firms which then will advise customer to used SAP as solutions. Microsoft allied with SAP to compete with Oracle. IBM also resell other products except Oracle.

Larry Ellison also promotes Network Computer, a solution that can give user chance to use computer at a low budget. But when the computer price drop, it kill Network Computer business. Oracle learn a lot from GE especially in the area of controlling budget.

Larry Ellison loves big boats and he even has a boat competing in Americas Cup called Sayonara Boat. Also huge catamaran (Katana and Ronin).He dates lots of good looking women especially from Stanford. Built one of the most expensive house in America called Woodside Project. Best friend of Steve Job.

CONTROL YOUR DESTINY OR SOMENONE ELSE WILL

2010-01-03T23:09:00.000-08:00

Jack Welch is the greatest CEO that GE has ever had. He become CEO in 1981. He introduce the No 1 or No 2 concept. If you cannot be either no 1 or no 2 leave the business. " You either the best at what you do or you don't do it for long".

He created Crotonville , a GE training center to ensure that all policy or views will be delivered to every member correctly. "THE PIT" a 110 seater meeting hall where no1 and no 2 will face the managers.

The fix/close/sell concept. Fix the problem, look if no1 or no2 and if not close or sell the business.

TONI THE MALDIVES LADY

2009-12-22T02:40:00.000-08:00

· A story of Toni De Laroque born in an upclass English family and was raised in the African continent most of her early life
· She was a very active young girl to the extent that she decided to learn how to fly plane without the knowledge of her family
· She then jined BAC as stewardess and travel around the world. She even had a rare experience servicing the Queen Mother in one of the flight
· When her marriage was in trouble (after 2 kids) she decided to travel and ended in Maldives.
· She was puzzle of why a very beautiful island with very nice and warm people such as Maldives do not get the attention of tourist. She then decided to promote the island to British people
· She even help the children of Maldives to study in Britain finding them sponsor, placement at University and even place to stay
· She runs a company called MALDIVES TRAVEL from her flat in Chelsea where she also get friend to donate books to be given to Maldives children

STAN THE MAN

2009-12-22T02:26:00.000-08:00

*Started as a player at Burnley. Has been very good in managing since he was hailed as the Fergie of Nationwide League since the double promotion of Bury ( a limited budget football club)
*Was hired as Burnley coach after Chris Waddle and Adrian Heath failed. Stan was the first team coach of Chelsea in 1991 assisting the manager at that time Ian Potterfield. He has to deal with Dennis Wise the captain who has a problem with Ian.
*Stan playing career started with Carlisle where he played as a defender and known as the Yorkshire Ripper. He was transferred to Sunderland where we was injured and decided to move to coaching. At 32 he coach Blackpool. However was sacked and work as contractor since not being offered by any club.
*He then get the chance to join Crystal Palace as coaching staff assisting Steve Coppell. From there he went to manage Hull City but sacked later as he cannot get along with player
*Next he manage Bury and get promoted to Division 1
*Manage to sign big playes like Ian Wright and Gazza when he manage Burnley

MARTINA

2009-12-22T02:22:00.000-08:00

*Born in Czech Republic to a ski instructor mum and ski patrol dad
*Start to be introduce to tennis at Klamorka Park the first indoor tennis court in Prague. She was noticed to always look more like a boy than a girl. She train with the Klamorka Tennis Club
*She won the national championship in 1972 where she beat Vlasta Vopickova
*Met Chris Evert for the first time in 1973 but lost 7-6,6-3
*She the defected to USA citing tennis as the main reason
*Among all the grand slam she like wimbledon due to the well behave crowd compare to US Open where the crowd is similar to the baseball game crowd
*She has a slight temperamental problem. Get the help from Sandra Haynie to control the temper
*She then had a lesbian affair with celebrity writer Rita Mae. They then separated after Martina found new lover Nancy Lieberman
1981 finally get heer US citizenship
*She then had another lesbian affair with Judy Nelson and Panda Ja
*She then finally retired after 18 grand slam and 167 single titles

MARCO : DEVIL IN THE KITCHEN

2009-12-22T02:18:00.000-08:00

*Born in Leeds in1961 to an Italian mum and English dad. Dad works as a chef in Hotel St George. Marko leave school before finishing exam to work in his dad kitchen.
*He then join Box Tree one of Leeds better restaurant under head chef Michael Lawson. He then decided to experienced the London scene and that brought him to Roux Brothers. He joined the famous Le Gavroche under Albert Roux quit in 1982 but then rejoin again.
*He then joined the famous Pierre Koffman at Tante Claire with no salary on his first month as part of the joining agreement.
*Then he joined Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir after being asked to cook perfect fish dish during interview. This is also whre he fist met with Heston Blumenthal
*He was planning to go to Paris for cooking experience but due to few incidents he then decided (with 2 other partners) to open HARVEYS. A very impressive review by Egon attract lots of people and even give him his first Michelin Star in 1988. He’s very vocal in the kitchen but proud of having his ex chef to be awarded Michelin star including Gordon Ramsay (3 stars)
*In 1992 he joined actor Michael Caine to open CANTEEN. He then leave HARVEYS to concentrate on CANTEEN
*He then married MATI , his wife who he met at CANTEEN
1993 open MPW @ Hyde Park Hotel with Rocco Forte.
*Feeling that he achieved everything in the cooking world he decided to give away his Michelin Star and retire from the culinary world.

BUSH WOMEN

2009-12-22T02:12:00.000-08:00

A compilation by Laura Flanders discussing about the womens that has a big impact on President Bush political journey. Among the women are :

* Condolezza Rice : the state secretary during his time as president
* Karen Huges : regarded as the counselor to the president. She has been his loyal adviser since the time where mr bush is just a small governor trying to survive in the political world
* Elaine Choo : the living example of a person that achieve the AMERICAN DREAM. She help the president to be closer to immigrant especially the asian people
* Christine Todd Whitman : his environmental advisor that assist mr bush in dealing with the environmental issues

SHE SAID YES ....

2009-10-21T23:09:00.000-07:00

A story by Misty Bernall the mother of Casey Bernall, one of the victim in Columbine high school shooting. It reveal how Misty was shot in the library (shot direct to the head) and how Misty heard it first in her office while having lunch.

It also reveals how Misty and her family deal with Casey problem while she friended a girl named Mona before the incident. Mona did influenced Casey to hate her parents. They manage to get police order so that Mona will stay away from Casey. Casey even wrote an essay saying she hate her family and god. Because of this they decided to transfer her to Columbine from Beaver High.

They also receive a letter from the parent of the Columbine Killera pologizing and do not understand of their son behaviour.

HIGH TECH CAREERS FOR LOW TECH PEOPLE

2009-10-12T22:53:00.000-07:00

A book on career guidance especially for non-technical graduates to join technical company. A very good read with eye opening information especially knowing that there are lots of job opportunity for people without technical background in a technical company. Jobs like proposal developer, marketing assistance, event organizer do not requires technical experience. Communications and creativity is the strength needed.

Also the books discuss about the importance of covering letter to attract attentions. The interesting fact about this books is that the writer works in Sun Micro system after graduating from Columbia U in FRENCH HISTORY !!!!!

ZLATA'S DIARY

2009-10-12T22:43:00.000-07:00

A story about a girl from Sarajevo who likes to write into her diary which she called MIMIE. She wrote about how her town in Sarajevo transformed from a dream place to live to a war zone. Her school friends were killed, bomb attack near her house, living everyday without water and electricity and worst of all disconnected from the outside world. With the help of UN Zlata and her family were transported to Paris as part of UN protection program.

ROBBO : MY BIOGRAPHY

2009-09-04T22:25:00.000-07:00

Bryan Robson was born in Chester le Street to a father who work as a truck driver. His father was a big fan of Newcastle football club. Robbo first taste of pro football with WBA manage at that time by Ron Atkinson.

When Ron moved to Man United he offered Robbo to join with a transfer record fee at that time of 1.5 million pound. After a very good start with Man United he then replaced Ray Wilkins as team captain. Man United was also supposed to sign Paul Gasgoine at that time of the most gifted midfield player in England. But Gazza refused to join because he’s afraid of being overshadowed by Robbo.

He was known as a goal scoring midfielder with a very good leadership as shown during his captaincy of England football team. However Robbo is injury prone which is his biggest problem during his footballing career. The arrival of Eric Cantona signal his days is to be ended in Man United.

His first coaching experienced is with Boro and using his image and contact he manage to bring talented player such as Juninho and Ravanelli. After stint in Boro he join WBA as manager. Robbo is a famous face for brand NEW BALANCE.

The Wizard Behind Harry Potter

2009-08-06T21:43:00.000-07:00

Joanne Kathleen Rowling was born 31/7/1966 in Chipping Sodbury Hospital. She is very good in writing things that based on her imagination. When she stayed in Wintebourne her closest friend was Ian and Vikki Porter and the name Harry Porter was inspired by their surname.

She graduated from Exeter University and joins Amnesty International, she did not like it because it took away the free time for her to write. She then worked in Portugal as English teacher because it provides more time for her to write plus new experience living in Portugal. She then met her future husband in Portugal (a journalist for one of Portugal TV station). Their only daughter was born in 1993 but sadly due to unforeseen reason they divorced.

JK Rowling favorite writing spot will be a small café named Nicolson Café. Complete her first novel however due to lack of financial support she had to type the whole 2 copies to be sent to the potential publisher. Her first novel was published by Bloomsbury Press.

Her second HP novel even beat the bigger names such as Tom Clancy and John Grisham. Warner Bros sign contracts to film Harry Porter. She even used a real person Natalie McDonald (page 159 – Goblet of Fire) to honor her fan who died of cancer. The actor for Harry Porter was supposed to be an American (suggested by Spielberg) but JK Rowling wanted an English actor. Daniel Radcliff was selected.

She is now happily married to Neil Murray with 2 kids.

Payless Books Warehouse

2009-08-04T21:11:00.000-07:00

Map to 3K Inn (this is 2007 ads)

Catch of the day

I went to the sale at 3K Inn near Subang Jaya. I've targeted cheap fiction books (due to the need to add my fiction collections). With a budget of RM 150 I manage to bring back around 70 books. Payless will be having this every month and for more info you can go to their website at this website

Book Xcess

2009-08-04T20:38:00.000-07:00

Book Xcess @ Level 3 Amcorp Mall

My first business deal with Book Xcess

The books store is made for book lovers

I was told about the above book store by one of my fellow book blogger. I've visited the website and really like the concept of buying overprinted books from publisher and selling it at a very good discounted price.

I'm finally was able to drive to Amcorp Mall last Friday and brought myself 5 good bio books on the followings :

1) Ashley Cole
2) Martin Johnson
3) Gazza (Paul Gasgoine)
4) Nicole Kidman
5) Ballack

The total cost is around RM 100 which for me considering it's a new books was a real bargain.

Rizal

Book Blogger Appreciation Week 2009

2009-07-21T02:15:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Announcing the Second Annual Book Blogger Appreciation Week September 14-18, 2009

Last year over 400 blogs came together to celebrate the art of book blogging during the first ever Book Blogger Appreciation Week! I am so pleased to announce that the second annual Book Blogger Appreciation Week will be taking place September 14-18.

WHO Anyone who blogs about books is invited to participate. In fact, we want everyone who blogs about books and reading to be a part of this week!
WHAT A week where we come together, celebrate the contribution and hard work of book bloggers in promoting a culture of literacy, connecting readers to books and authors, and recogonizing the best among us with the Second Annual BBAW Awards. There will be special guest posts, daily blogging themes, and giveaways.
WHEN September 14-18, 2009
WHERE Here at the new Book Blogger Appreciation Week Blog! (Please note that this year there are three separate blogs and feeds—one for the main event, one for giveaways, and one for awards.)
WHY Because books matter. In a world full of options, the people talking about books pour hard work, time, energy, and money into creating a community around the written word. I, Amy, the founder of Book Blogger Appreciation Week love this community of bloggers and want to shower my appreciation on you!

For further information visits :

http://rpc.blogrolling.com/redirect.php?r=9bcdb2772641c55237e203c9d9136674&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pussreboots.pair.com

Nickel and Dime

2009-07-18T20:12:00.000-07:00

Barbara Ehrenreich wanted to study how people in America who earn less than USD 10 per hour manage their live and what she decided to do? To be (or act) as one of them. This book summarizes her experience working at the following places:

a) Work as a restaurant server in Florida

b) Work as house cleaner in Maine

c) Work with WALMART in Minnesota

She did challenge herself to live within a limited budget on food, rent and entertainment. Most of the time she has to do extra works during weekend to earn extra cash. What she did discover was to survive in this category (low income earner) it requires exhausting mental/physical efforts.

RIZAL

HOW THE WEB CHANGE OUR READING HABIT

2009-06-30T00:29:00.001-07:00

When Ed Chi wants to read, he turns to two of the six computer screens that surround his desk. One is devoted exclusively to e-mail; the other, to the rest of his reading material.

The senior researcher is testing a theory: What if your "virtual desk" was as just big as your real desk? How would that change your behavior? Dr. Chi, of the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in California, has found out one thing already. Almost all his reading - text messages, e-mails, journal articles, even books - is done on-screen.

Computers and the Internet are changing the way people read. Thus far, search engines and hyperlinks, those underlined words or phrases that when clicked take you to a new Web page, have turned the online literary voyage into a kind of U-pick island-hop. Far more is in store.

Take "Hamlet." A decade ago, a student of the Shakespeare play would read the play, probably all the way through, and then search out separate commentaries and analyses.
Enter hamletworks.org.

When completed, the site will help visitors comb through several editions of the play, along with 300 years of commentaries by a slew of scholars. Readers can click to commentaries linked to each line of text in the nearly 3,500-line play. The idea is that some day, anyone wanting to study "Hamlet" will find nearly all the known scholarship brought together in a cohesive way that printed books cannot.

Even that effort only scratches the surface of what's possible, some researchers say. Since people are still largely reading the way they always have, they ask, why not use technology to make reading itself more efficient?

The reading experience online "should be better than on paper," Chi says. He's part of a group at PARC developing what it calls ScentHighlights, which uses artificial intelligence to go beyond highlighting your search words in a text. It also highlights whole sections of text it determines you should pay special attention to, as well as other words or phrases that it predicts you'll be interested in.

"Techniques like ScentHighlights are offering the kind of reading that's above and beyond what paper can offer," Chi says. While readers might not feel a need to use ScentHighlights with the next Harry Potter novel, the software could help students, academics, and business people quickly extract specific information from other written material.

ScentHighlights gets its name from a theory that proposes that people forage for information much in the same way that animals forage in the wild. "Certain plants emit a scent in order to attract birds and bees to come to them," Chi says. ScentHighlights uncovers the "scent" that bits of information give off and attract readers to it.

If the reader types in "Wimbledon tennis," for example, ScentHighlights would highlight each word in its own color in the text, as search programs do. But ScentHighlights adds additional keywords in gray that the system has inferred that the reader would be interested in (perhaps "US Open" or "Andy Roddick"). It would also highlight in yellow entire sentences that it deems likely to be especially relevant.

GRANMEDIA

2009-06-14T20:53:00.000-07:00

Finally , there a book store near to my house. Granmedia is a book store franchise from Indonesia and to my surprise this is their first book store in Malaysia and they must have a very good reason to open it in Tesco Setia Alam and not in area like Bangsar or KLCC. Whatever it is I'm really happy and the first book that I've bought is a biography of Kassim Ahmad.

RIZAL

ORGANIZING YOUR COLLECTIONS

2009-06-02T01:51:00.000-07:00

Alphabetizing by author works well for fiction but not necessarily for nonfiction books of various subjects.
Judging a book by its cover is usually frowned upon, but sorting by color can be aesthetically pleasing to some. Those generally forgetful about the colors of their books might disagree.
After a painful breakup, the main character in Nick Hornby's book "High Fidelity" organizes his record collection autobiographically in the order he acquired them. A chronological organization might include shelves that track the progress of your life, from beloved childhood reading and college textbooks to parenting books.
To some readers, there are two ways to look at books: read and unread. Prioritizing when you might need the book will allow you to keep unread books at the forefront of your collection, as well as books you reach for frequently, such as reference books or favorite novels.

RIZAL

A STRANGE KIND OF GLORY (SIR MATT BUSBY)

2009-05-10T19:41:00.000-07:00

A story about the famous Sir Matt Busby arguably the best Man United manager before Sir Alex Ferguson era. Born in Scotland and played for Manchester United and the Scottish National Team. He was asked to manage Man United by former Man United players who was in the club management at that time.

Manage to recruit young talented players around Great Britain such as Duncan Edward (arguably the best striker ever born in England) and others. This selected players was know as "The Busby Babes". Even Bobby Charlton could not get into first eleven.

Tragedy struck in the famous Munich Plane Disaster. 70% of the original squad including Duncan Edward died. Matt Busby build again the team from scratch recruiting young and talented players such as Brian Kidd and George Best together with Bobby Charlton. They won the European Cup in 1968 the first English Club to achieve it.

RIZAL

BEHIND THE MASK (DAVE PALLONE)

2009-05-04T01:37:00.000-07:00

A story about former Major League baseball umpire. His father plan for Dave to be a MLB Baseball player, but did not materialized. Dave decide to join the Umpire School (from newspaper advertisement). It works and his progression is very good starting from Minor to Major League.

One day he realized that he's gay and tried his best to hide the fact. Being gay is known not to be accepted in the big league and he do not want to create problem. His first lover , Scott, died in accident. Dave was chosen few times to umpire playoff and All-Star games but never achieved the ultimate goal ..THE WORLD SERIES ..

Dave did experienced several controversial moments especially the shoving incident with PETE ROSE (at that time managing Cincinati Reds). Due to a minor sex scandal (Dave didn't admit it) he was forced to quit.

PESTA BUKU ANTARABANGSA KL 2009

2009-04-02T20:48:00.000-07:00

Jom la kita pegi ramai-ramai. Let support the KL Books Fair 2009.

RIZAL

THE LAST GREAT RIDE

2009-03-25T19:29:00.000-07:00

A story about Brandon Tartikoff the "wizard" of media industry. During his tenure in NBC his COSBY SHOW was a big hit to about 48% of the share. However in 1982 he hits into problem both health and NBC. Series such as Remington Steele and KnightRider are not doing very well. He was save by A-TEAM and SHOGUN which receive high ratings at that time.

He also lead the idea of replacing Tonight Show (Johnny Carson leave in 1991) with The Late Night Show with David Letterman. During his time NBC bids for MLB contracts worth of USD 800 M and succeed.

After 14 years with NBC he move to Paramount Pictures as Chairman.

MPH 'JIMAT' BOOK FAIR

2009-02-26T21:24:00.000-08:00

Another book fair from MPH.

RIZAL

Karangkraf Mini Karnival

2009-02-24T20:15:00.000-08:00

For those looking for a good Malay novels and magazines, and do not have any plan this weekend ...why not going to this event ...and yes ..they do give good discounts.

RIZAL

PROUD TO BE (KELLY FLINN)

2009-02-18T23:13:00.000-08:00

She is the first women to fly B-52. A tomboy since kid she was in love with aircraft since watching the launching of a spaceship in TV. Entered the Air Force Academy in 1993 and decided to be a pilot. She was selected to fly B-52 and was based in a town called MINOT.

She train hard and received good review from her trainers. Then she seriously involved with a con-man called Marc Zigo (who's wife is an air-women working in Minot). Suddenly Kelly Flint affair was in every newspaper front page.

The Air Force wanted her to resign but she decided to fight on (it happen that Marc Zigo had the same problem with other women previously). However since 'She'll be prison" if she decided to go for trial and for the safety of her family, she step down.

A very classic example of a women fighting for her pride and was denied by the corrput politics of the American Air-Force.

CONTENT = 8/10
IMPACT = 8/10
OVERALL = 8/10

Times Warehouse Sale

2009-02-04T23:22:00.000-08:00

The Poster (complete with a map to Plaza Damas)

My catch (30 books with a budget of RM 100)

I went to the warehouse sales (after few difficulty looking for Plaza Damas) and after spending almost 2 hours, most of it at the 3 books for RM 10 area, went back with 30 books with a cost of approximately RM 100 ...now that is what I call ware house sale ....

RIZAL

BOSS TALK (WALL STREET JOURNAL)

2009-01-04T20:20:00.001-08:00

A very interesting books that collects interesting idea and system implemented by successful CEOs from various company. The input is from interviews conducted and 25 CEOs have participated successfully. In this summary I’ll list down 3 input from 3 highly recognize CEO.

1) Jack Welch (GE)

· The introduction of Crotonville Complex that handles all training for General Electronics staff.

· Rewarding people is very important and Jack believe the best rewards is in terms of CASH.

2) Steve Ballmer (Apple)

· Get the best people

· Clear goal (short term and long term)

· People (that Apple hired) understand the goals

3) John Chambers (Cisco)

· Birthday breakfast (staff will have the chance to meet John in an open session)

· Customer is the center of the company culture.

RIZAL

HOW TO CHOOSE A GOOD BOOK

2008-12-16T19:20:00.000-08:00

1) Make a list answering these questions:

What kind of books do you like?

What authors do you like? Research books by authors you've enjoyed in the past. Chances are they'll have another publication that you'll also enjoy.

Is there a type of book, or a specific book you would like to try?

Are there any books in a certain series you would like to read?

What are your interests? Insert your hobbies into your library catalog search and set it to, "Keyword."

2) Search your house. Often times good books will be quietly collecting dust in your own house. Maybe you forgot about one, or someone who is living with you has a couple good books.

3) Ask someone to recommend a good book. You can ask your older sibling, your mom, your dad, your best friend, or even your English teacher. Friends or family with whom you have things in common can often make excellent book recommendations. Local, small bookstores often have wonderful recommendations, and when they get to know you, it's even better!

4) Read book reviews in newspapers and magazines. Read the bestseller lists published in most newspapers or weekly magazines. Find out which new books are making headlines, and why.

5) Join a book club. Being a book club member is often a way to experience new books you might never have had the motivation to read otherwise.

6) See if the library or bookstore has computers. If it does, then look on the library's search engine. You can use the search engine to find a certain book, books by a certain author, or anything as broad as just a certain genre.

7) Ask the librarian or book seller about the location of the books you're looking for. He/she will be happy to help you.

8) Skim through the shelves in the section you're interested in. If you see anything that looks appealing, pick it up and read the back of the book. Skim over the back of the book or the inside flap, wherever the summary is. If that holds your attention, read the first page or so. If it still holds your attention, then it's probably a good book for you. The subject might be interesting to you, but the writing style can be key to enjoying it. If it looks interesting, put it in your pile. Keep doing this until you have a few books.

9) Find a place to sit, or stand if you must, and read the first chapter of each book. Of course, if you have many books, this can be time consuming.

10) Narrow down your stack. If you would rather have book 1 over book 2, put book 2 back. Keep doing this. If you would rather have book 3 then book 1, put book 1 back, etc.

THE BURGER KING

2008-12-02T18:56:00.000-08:00

A biography of James Mc Lamore the founder of Burger King. He was born in NY City on May 30th 1926 to a middle class family. Had his first experience working in the food industry at YMCA.

He then join with Dave Edgerton to open Insta Burger King francais. In 1957 visiting another Insta Burger King outlet in Florida he notice a small restaurant serving a XL burger. The idea was used to create Whopper the flagship of Burger King (the new name).

The business was booming and they used radio advertisement (the burger king jingle) to catch attention and also sponsoring the Jim Dooley Show. In 1967 they are challenging McDonald with 72 outlets (McD is having 105 outlets).

In 1967, Phillbury group take over Burger King with a cost of USD 20M and James McLamore continue his job as the CEO.

GEORGE CLOONEY

2008-11-24T19:07:00.000-08:00

An autobiography of George Clooney. He was born in Kentucky. His father Nick Clooney was in the showbiz and that was one of the motivating factor for young George to look at showbiz as the career to choose.

Also a very good baseball player (known as a good hitter but average fielder) and was once called by Cincinati Red for trial but to no success. Through his cousin (Miguel Ferrer) he was introduced seriously to showbiz and began to attend auditions. Used to be in Roseanne and the Killer Tomatoes series.

He went for E.R audition and was given the part for Dr Greene but later change to Dr Ross (he was too going for Dr Greene character !!!). His first movie was Quentin's Tarantino From Dusk till Dawn and the list goes on ...

RIZAL

TIPS ON HOW TO ENJOY READING

2008-11-19T23:38:00.000-08:00

Set times.

You should have a few set times during every day when you’ll read for at least 5-10 minutes. These are times that you will read no matter what — triggers that happen each day. For example, make it a habit to read during breakfast and lunch (and even dinner if you eat alone). And if you also read every time you’re sitting on the can, and when you go to bed, you now have four times a day when you read for 10 minutes each — or 40 minutes a day. That’s a great start, and by itself would be an excellent daily reading habit. But there’s more you can do.

Always carry a book.

Wherever you go, take a book with you. When I leave the house, I always make sure to have my drivers license, my keys and my book, at a minimum. The book stays with me in the car, and I take it into the office and to appointments and pretty much everywhere I go, unless I know I definitely won’t be reading (like at a movie). If there is a time when you have to wait (like at a doctor’s office or at the DMV), whip out your book and read. Great way to pass the time.

Make a list.

Keep a list of all the great books you want to read. You can keep this in your journal, in a pocket notebook, on your personal home page, on your personal wiki, wherever. Be sure to add to it whenever you hear about a good book, online or in person. Keep a running list, and cross out the ones you read. Tech trick: create a Gmail account for your book list, and email the address every time you hear about a good book. Now your inbox will be your reading list. When you’ve read a book, file it under “Done”. If you want, you can even reply to the message (to the same address) with notes about the book, and those will be in the same conversation thread, so now your Gmail account is your reading log too.

Find a quiet place.

Find a place in your home where you can sit in a comfortable chair (don’t lay down unless you’re going to sleep) and curl up with a good book without interruptions. There should be no television or computer near the chair to minimize distractions, and no music or noisy family members/roommates. If you don’t have a place like this, create one.

THE FIRST BILLION

2008-11-11T18:53:00.000-08:00

A fiction writing by Chris Reich about John "Jett" a former fighter pilot who at present day is a CEO of a security related company and in the process of taking over a telco in Russia, Mercury Broadband.

It hit a big problem due to the relation between Mercury Broadband with the Russian mob (which Jett knows nothing about it...). Once it's confirmed, that is after Jett paid a large sum of money to a computer hackers to get the needed info, he sent his no 2 guy, Grafton to Russia to investigate. And like a normal plot in a crime movie, Grafton was caught.

It was Jett's girlfriend who save the day. Cate (Jett's girl) is actually the daughter of the mob leader and with her help Jett manage to rescue Grafton and finalize the take over deal. The company was later rename to Novastar and like most of fiction writing ...at the end of the day it's happy ending.

RIZAL

GLENN HODDLE : MY WORLD CUP STORY

2008-11-05T00:26:00.000-08:00

An inside story from Glenn Hoddle about the 1998 World Cup from the preparation until the elimination. Among others :

1) Not to include Gazza in the final team listing

2) Include to future stars Michael Owen and David Beckham

They manage to qualify after drawing with Italy in Rome. Their overall result :

First Round
=========
Won against Tunisia
Lost to Romania (with Hagi) 1-2
Won against Colombia 2-0

Qualify for last 16
=============
Lost against Argentina (penalty shootout). Beckham was red carded.

RUDE AWAKENING

2008-11-04T01:13:00.000-08:00

A book written by Maryann Keller who has vast experience dealing with General Motor (GM) management culture. It's a story that reveals what was the actual problem that contributes to the fall of the giant company that once was the pride of america automobile industry.

The terms "14th floor" was very important because that is the area where most of the decision makers of GM were LOCATED located. Also the issue of GM attitude towards Japanese automobile company invasion to the US auto scene which to them is " NOT A BIG DEAL, WE CAN HANDLE THAT". The problem was they are serious in improving lots of thing accept for the improvement of the cars which was their biggest disadvantage compare to the Japanese cars.

Also the story of the partying cultures although during bad performance results. GM however accept the importance to joint force with Japanese company and finally decided to work with Toyota forming a company GM-Toyota.

Their first project is a Chevy Nova.The joint venture did not hit very well as the American is having hard time to adapt some of the Japanese working culture especially KAIZEN. No proper training on the robotic training also create problems.In 1986 Ford exceed GM total sales and becomes the number one automotive company in the US.Overall it's a very straight forward telling the truth writting and it's clear running a very big company and merging with another company from another country is not an easy task.

THE PRESENT

2008-11-04T01:07:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I've the opportunity to read this book authored by Spencer Johnson. It's a simple book but full with surprises. The book concentrate on THE PRESENT , the best gift from you to yourself. It's a fictional story of a boy and an old man.

One day the old man promised to the boy that he'll give the best ever present to the boy and every day the boy will visit the old man to get his present.You'll have to wait until the mid phase of the book to actually know what is THE PRESENT.

And THE PRESENT = Focusing on what is happening RIGHT NOW and appreciating it. And according to the old wise man in order to get the present you'll have to take a break from your regular routine.According to the old man to maximize the present we should LIVE and WORK with PURPOSE. Overall summary of this great book :

a) BE IN THE PRESENT

b) LEARN FROM THE PAST

c) PLAN FOR THE FUTURE

FLIGHT : MY LIFE IN MISSION CONTROL

2008-11-04T01:04:00.000-08:00

It's a biography of a great man Chris Kraft the first NASA Flight Director. He was born in a small town called Phoebus and further his study at Virginia Polytech. After his study he was due to join Chance Vought ( but was not accepted because of birth certificate problem).

He join NASA (aeronautical research).Involve in the space mission war between Russia and America (started with the Sputnik 1 mission). When JFK announce the Saturn and Apollo project Chris Kraft join STG (Special task Group). And his first task was to design the first NASA Control Center.Was the mission control director when Apollo 11 (with Neil Amstrong,Buzz Aldrin and Collins) landed on the Moon.

Kraft was also the Man in charge for the last Apollo project , Apollo 17.Interesting fact: When the decision was to be made between Amstrong and Buzz Aldrin, on who'll be the first man in the moon by NASA, they decided on Amstrong because of his down to earth and soft spoken attitude that portrays better true american hero.

THE FUGITIVE GAME

2008-11-04T01:01:00.000-08:00

It's a book dedicated to one of the greatest computer hackers.

Among the highlights :

* Utilize a wiretapping program called SAS which is not traceable.

* Use a lot of social engineering to get in to the system

* A guy by the name of De Payne is his second in command

* Hunted by FBI through a double agent eric heinz and a computer security expert Tsutomu Shimomura.

*Kevin finally was traced and caught by FBI (with shimomura assistance) at a remote place called Duraleigh Road, North Carolina.

JESSE JACKSON : THE PHENOMENON

2008-11-04T00:59:00.000-08:00

Bought this masterpiece at PayLess Warehouse Sale few weeks back. Rev Jesse Jackson is probably one of the most influenced african-american who contested the presidency election (democrat) in 1984 and 1988. Although he lost the battle (he's african-american anyway ...) what interest me is the motivation and willingness to fight as a minority.Am not surprised if Obama is also looking at this guy as a motivational figure since he's also in the same situation at the moment.p/s : Do you think he can win ???? Maybe ...or ....

NETSCAPE TIME

2008-11-04T00:53:00.001-08:00

I bought this book at another warehouse sale by MPH last month pricing at RM 8.00. What a catch !!!. It's a story perfectly written by Jim Clark the co-founder of NetScape together with Marc Andreesen.It's a coincidence really when Jim Clark before that was also the founder of Silicon Graphic (lots of reference pointing back at Silicon Graphic in this book) at the last day of his tenure in SGI was introduced to Mosaic , one of the first browser developed by Marc Andreesen (while studying at Uni of Illinois)Team up with Marc and almost everybody in the previous Mosaic development team to formed NetScape Communications a company with an objective to developed a revolutionary browser code name 'MOSAIC KILLER' IN April 4 , 1994The new browser will boost up the speed of the previous Mosaic up to 10 times !!!! (14.4 Kbps ....but of course it's 14 years ago my friend ) . Also story on NetScape court battle with the University of Illinois to get the rights in using Mosaic as the name of their browser. At the end NetScape decided to use NetScape (which i think was a brilliant move).IPO launching of NetScape create one of the largest increment of share percentage in the history where it opens at USD 71 per share an increment of almost 400%.Another interesting fact is the working culture in NetScape where office hour normally start late in the day because to most of their programmer "A lot of interesting stuff happens after 8 pm"Highly recommended especially those who wanted to know more about NetScape.

YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS

2008-11-04T00:51:00.001-08:00

A biography written by James Kaplan dedicated to the original bad boy of tennis Johnny Mac or we know him as John McEnroe. He was born in New York City to a middle class family. After coming through from the youth tournament circuit across the U.S he join Stanford University. He stated the primary reason was Stanford has at that time one of the better tennis team in the country.
He was the world number one tennis from 1984-1988. He compete in the era of Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors and several newcomers like Ivan Lendl, Michael Chang. He still hold one of the most outstanding tennis record of all time ...a total career title of 154 !!!(77 single and 77 double).
He won 4 US Open and 3 Wimbledon. However Johnny never won the french and Australian open (some of the few things in this world that is not meant for him ...according to John). One interesting fact about him is his last win where he beat his own brother Patrick (and that's the first time they ever met in pro circuit...)
John McEnroe still plays in the senior circuit and work as a part time tennis commentator in several sport channel in the US.

CONTROL YOUR DESTINY OR SOMEONE ELSE WILL

2008-11-04T00:46:00.000-08:00

A book on Jack Welch, arguably the greatest GE CEO ever. Upon his appointment as the CEO in 1981 he revolutionized few concept that improvise the performance of GE as a whole.
No1 or No 2 concept that concentrate on potential business that will be continued only if it can promised position no 1 or no 2 in the market. As mentioned by Jack "You either be the best at what you do or you don't do it at all". This is to be done by providing value added no competitor could match.
Crotonville is another Creation of Jack Welch, a GE training complex. This is the place where Jack will ensure his GE management wholly understand the GE corporate value. One of the famous location is known as "The Pit" a 110 seat meeting hall where he will have a face to face session with his management.
Another concept is known as WorkOut, which is altering GEers behaviour to suits GE vision.
As a whole a simple yet full of interesting concept that could be implemented in our day to day activities.
RIZAL