Friday, June 25, 2010

Values Determine Relevance



The mural painted by inmates

Another history was made earlier this week when Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur demolished the infamous 100-year old Pudu jail in Kuala Lumpur to widen the roads in that area and to have plans for redevelopment. The move had aroused anger and disappointment in many people who appreciate places of history. Historic items must be preserved, according to them, who are convinced that Pudu jail was a historic site that could tell a lot of the nation’s stories. The jail that was built in 1891 was closed in 1996 when all the inmates were transferred to the new prison in Sg Buloh. From 1996 onwards, the former Jail was made a museum for a short period of time and then again in 2004 before it was closed for public.


Is this a piece of art that should be treasured?
I don’t really get the point of why people were being sentimental about this place. The fact that it’s old is one but there are many other things that are old and useless. Tower of London for example is a place of history that contains interesting stories of the English royals and the heads that were chopped (quite often) there. But, Pudu Jail to me was just a jail in the middle of the city centre that was not even kept well by the government and didn’t even house notorious criminals. Yeah, there are famous prisons such as the Rock, Chateau d'If in Marseilles and the one in the Devil’s Island of France that are now tourist attractions. But, for everything that needs to be preserved, it has to have values and it has to be taken care of. This place was ignored. Period.
The protestors were talking so sentimentally about the mural. Yeah, it was great that the criminals were given something to do and some of them could paint but after so many years, the mural was worn down and it’s not an eye pleaser at all. It's not like it's Banksy's. In fact, those who championed this issue were not even looking at the mural when they passed the place before this issue surfaced. Should the government pay attention to the place? I vote yes but since they are not, why waste such space.


I say conserve the places that have values to society and future generations. In this time and age, do something that has values for if not, it has no relevance.

Coming back to FingerTec, we are always thinking about creating values for our customers. What’s the point of doing something if it has no values? The support micro sites currently are being used by our clients for sales and support materials.


Haven't registered yet? www.fingertec.com/registration
We do not want to follow other people’s moves blindly, just because. Our website is created in such a way for a purpose, we do not do according to normal business’s corporate website. Complains were lodged when we first introduced the website because people were not used to it. The newsletter is not for us to boast about our company and the brand but we offer information so that our resellers could pick up relevant news for their sales and marketing activities. We let our sales and support personnel standby online in case you need them to assist you swiftly, not just available icons to indicate there’s someone online when in fact it is none. In short, whatever we do, the plan is to offer value added services to all our clients. If it has no purpose, stop it.

by Norana Johar, COO, FingerTec HQ

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

iLoveTechnology

Last night my husband came back with a pad in his hand. Do not cringe just yet, it’s iPad! I squealed like a little girl for a brief two seconds. How could I not? Yeah, it is a blown up version of iPod touch but it’s full of awesomeness! Using the same iTunes, I quickly sync my applications into iPad. Love the way they do iBooks, easy to download, easy to read and it is visually stunning, the book on iBooks I mean and the iPad of course! Unfortunately, they do not yet have their iBookstore to sell good titles to iPad users. I’m sure a group of people is living on coffee and nicotine to get the store set up and launch while iPad is still the hot topic of the gadget-craze urbanites. I went to Kobo store instead and bought a couple of ebook titles and the experience was simply amazing!
There was a time 10 years back when we (as part of the group) were interested in the ebook business but the interest turned stale after encountering countless hurdles and inconveniences. Though the development of ebook improves a lot since then, iPad and Kindle bring the trend to another level of sophistication. I can flip my ebook like flipping the print book, and smiling while doing it. I don’t need to go to the bookstore to browse through thousands of books; I can browse, pay and read in a matter of minutes. Pretty impressive I must say. My point is, development of technology takes time but it’s the time worth waiting.

Technology is awesome. It makes our life better in so many ways. I work in technology-based business. Who would have thought that your fingerprint could be used as your private key? We bumped into glitches when we first started but now, 10 years later, everybody is looking for convenience. This year, face recognition technology is making its debut. Look and go is the concept of the Face ID 2 where you do not need to touch anything and you are good to go. FingerTec will continue to progress in biometrics industry, providing people with conveniences.
Yesterday I bought something on eBay, now I’m reading my book on iPad, tomorrow who knows what the future has in store for me. And that to me, what makes life interesting.

by Norana Johar, COO, FingerTec HQ