Eric & Chee T -

He Shoots, He Blogs and.....

Pictures of the week

Last but not least..
To Diana, From Superman and Ven

Havent finished processing the rest or had time to select for upload yet. This will have to do for now.

Canon Pro Seminar

Just pictures in open html. Click pic to enter album.

I'm sure the rest of the top rank bloggers have the story.

Locking your Go! Modem into 3G/3.5G

To answer Modulo's question.

Plug your modem into a windows machine. Install the application. Reboot. Start the USB modem application and connect. You will find options to disable the 2G-3G and leave just the modem as a 3/3.5G modem. Note: If you are not transferring any data, your modem will show a green light indicating its in 3G communications. When you start any transfer, only then the light will turn blue.

Note: Speeds during the day as the US is just waking up is slow.. unfortunately. Speeds during the night (between 12-14 hrs behind) are faster as the US traffic starts to sleep. This unfortunately is a fact of life.

To date, my modem has been functioning fine. No torrents though. Come on, DST.. solve this issue. Also, i noticed with certain sites like itunes shop.. downloads have been as high as 300-400KB per sec :)

As for Zoom, havent really tested it myself but 4 out of 5 people have told me and I quote, "5 mins to load up a web page."

Omni? Errmm.. not unless 2 mbits at $88. Adding Zoom to Espeed doesn't make any difference. The only tactical advantage espeed now has is its torrents but at 512KB.. after we've had a taste of 3.5mbits.. you gotta be kidding.

Modulo:

Those terminologies are just the names used for 2G, 2.5G, 3G and 3.5G respectively. Simply technologies used in mobile telecommunications. Google them or look for them in Wikipedia for more detail.

2009

A year of change... In 2009, there will be two significant changes.
Firstly, I am going to take a break from Wedding Photography and spend a year mastering cinematography. I have no idea how this will affect my business and life but its something that I feel has to be done in order for me to move on and acquire new skills and knowledge. I've been trying to take allocate more time to this industry this year but I find myself having less time due to the work from photography piling up from both past and upcoming projects. So.. insyallah, this leap of faith will still allow me the 'rezeki' to feed my family and simultaneously better myself and hopefully push our filming industry into a new era. I also hope to spend more time with Adam (my son).
Secondly, the photography business will still be running, however, I will not be shooting. Instead, I have decided and train and assign three photographers (one of whom I have already confirmed) to shoot under the David Cheok Photography brand. Theses are hand-picked and specially trained for this work. I will oversee their work and ensure the quality control of everything from the photography to album delivery. All their albums will hold my logo. I may from time to time, join them, to make sure everything is going ok and may also shoot from time to time.
The going-rates for these photographers will be the same this that for 2008 and will remain at that. Payment and terms will be the same. Deliverables will be the same.
I hope this is ok with future clients. This is the only way I can continue to provide services to the industry whilst I go on my quest for knowledge and experience. If you have any queries about this, let me know.

Thoughts to ponder

The post below got me thinking...

We have better looking blogger's sites than our .gov sites. We have highly creative and competent people amongst us like the fellow from Kurapak who does web and site designs in our population. Its not that we do not have the skills to do it.. Its not that we do not have the creative pool.. AND its not that we do not have the money! Why on earth?

Where is all the millions of our precious GNP that is allocated year after year going to? Sorry.. I think its just sickening. Millions spent on the new RTB complex next to a stinking dumpsite infested with rats. Millions more spent on stopping the smell from affecting the people working there. What a waste. And we have ministries complaining of our population wasting a mere $200 million on energy? I think a lot more would've been saved from all this wasted resources of fixing problems that shouldnt have been there in the first place if it was more well thought out. And, i dont think it would even cost $50,000 (out of those millions) for someone like Kurapak to do up a proper content management system and website design for the entire .gov!

Where are we headed?

Another waste of space is our tourism dept. I found out that a group of Koreans were visiting our temburong national park and some of them had a scare when the poorly maintained walkway along the trails collapsed. No one was hurt but it stopped the rest of the tour group from continuing the tour there and the group left soon after. The only response they got from Tourism was "it was an accident". FFS.. damage control! I can understand it was an accident but at least do something to make it up to them! That leads on to another issue... we are here promoting our national park left right and centre and why arent our national heritage walkways amongst others being maintained? My colleagues and I spend our time filming and shooting promoting our country to viewers abroad (FOR FREE) and what happens when tourists come? Come on. I know our tourism board is throwing money to overseas photographers, media (maybe because they dont think our locals are good enough) etc holding exhibitions left right and centre and yet what do they see when they get here IF they even want to come here? Incidently, a comment was made from someone high up at Brunei Tourism Board about my videos not good enough to promote Brunei and our national park. yeah.. its free and I still get that. They are not willing to pay me or any local for that matter to do a proper promotional video and yet have the nerve to make statements like that. Pay for a proper video to be done. Otherwise, do not make statements like that if someone sends you a gift. The term "melepaskan anjing tersepit' comes to mind.

Do they really know anything about marketing?

Here.. free lesson!

Simplest rules of MARKETING:

4Ps!

Price!
Promotion!
Place!
PRODUCT!

Wikipedia -

"Definition

Although some marketers have added other Ps, such as personnel and packaging, the fundamental dogma of marketing typically identifies the four Ps of the marketing mix as referring to:
Product - An object or a service that is mass produced or manufactured on a large scale with a specific volume of units. A typical example of a mass produced service is the hotel industry. A less obvious but ubiquitous mass produced service is a computer operating system. Typical examples of a mass produced objects are the motor car and the disposable razor.
Price – The price is the amount a customer pays for the product. It is determined by a number of factors including market share, competition, material costs, product identity and the customer's perceived value of the product. The business may increase or decrease the price of product if other stores have the same product.
Place – Place represents the location where a product can be purchased. It is often referred to as the distribution channel. It can include any physical store as well as virtual stores on the Internet.
Promotion – Promotion represents all of the communications that a marketer may use in the marketplace. Promotion has four distinct elements - advertising, public relations, word of mouth and point of sale. A certain amount of crossover occurs when promotion uses the four principle elements together, which is common in film promotion. Advertising covers any communication that is paid for, from television and cinema commercials, radio and Internet adverts through print media and billboards. One of the most notable means of promotion today is the Promotional Product, as in useful items distributed to targeted audiences with no obligation attached. This category has grown each year for the past decade while most other forms have suffered. It is the only form of advertising that targets all five senses and has the recipient thanking the giver. Public relations are where the communication is not directly paid for and includes press releases, sponsorship deals, exhibitions, conferences, seminars or trade fairs and events. Word of mouth is any apparently informal communication about the product by ordinary individuals, satisfied customers or people specifically engaged to create word of mouth momentum. Sales staff often plays an important role in word of mouth and Public Relations (see Product above)."

What's the point of promotions, pricing and location marketing when we dont even have a proper product to deliver? What are we paying these 'highly qualified' super duper professionals for? I'm only a business graduate and I can already see so many gaps in the marketing processes.

National Jokes.. e-govt?

Seriously.. most of our .gov websites are jokes. Most look like primary school children projects.
RTB just launched their RTB City website.. I went in to have a look and saw this (Click About US, Spell Organisation).

I can't believe they had a launching ceremony for this crap and i cannot believe that "Pg Dato Ismail was proud to mention that RTB’s website is ranked top 10 among other government website worldwide.." Maybe the reason why its top 10 is so it allows people to come have a good laugh at us. The links travel from english to malay and english again.. the international programme is in malay.. the site themes are all inconsistent.. blah blah blah. Come on.. if you cant do it yourself pay someone like Kurapak.com to do it. This is a NATIONAL EMBARASSMENT!

At the time of posting this, our ISPs are also damn hilarious. I couldnt even upload a 60kb file for a screen shot.

Here is the :
1) BBC for comparison. and here is
2) Bangladesh's National TV site. At least they can keep the theme consistent!
3) Here is China's CCTV.
4) Here is the US .gov portal
5) Here is SIngapore's .gov
6) Here is Malaysia's .gov
7) Here is UK's .gov
8) Here is South Africa
9) Here is Brazil's
10) Here is Taiwan
11) Here is Japan

Where does our .gov sites fit in any of those???? And these are just all random..

Look here