PalmX

We just had our annual BTM for 2001 aand it was great! About 25 people( members,wives and kids) were there. Too much food and too few people. Thanks to everyone who attended and special thanks to those who brought foods and drinks. My special thanks to Nazley for cooking something cheesy and a CD for a few palm apps.

Met up with Hasni and Nazley at Coffeebeans,AP. Got back some of my palm apps from Hasni and Nazley. Need to go to TechStop for repairs of my power button.

Bad news again for my palm111c. The power button is broken; I lost all data due to low battery:-(( On the bright side, I look forward to buy m505 and Annual BTM on 30.12.2001

To-day is the first time for my palm111c to reside in a mobile pants from Dockers. I bought the pants with the help of Kasman of Penang for RM 188.

A few days ago, I started trying an intranet from http://www.intranets.com and set up a trial version(for 30 days) for my bridge project.It contains features like discussion,annoucements,email,document etc. One thing I like it acts like a virtual project office and I can sync with my palm111c.For ten users,I will have to pay about RM 200 a month.

This morning, three palmxers met at KLCC garden to check on Lata Citra. Those who came were Hasni,Adib, Nazley and Tim. We visited the site and agree to have our annual BTM there on 30 Dec., 2001 from 8am to 10 am. Just got voicemail msg from Kasman. He is in Keramat area.I need to pick up my new dockers smart pants from him. Thanks Kasman.

I am looking forward to buy a dockers pants that can store my h/p and palm in the pocket.

Install funsms from Nazley yesterday. Try to get some info on buka puasa but my thinkDB is an old version. Need to upgrade it. I think 'thinkDB' is quite a powerful programmable dbase program. I must learn how to use it from Nazley and also read the book.

I look forward to install OS 4.1 Hope it is going to be better;-0

Now, I realised that I can't send sms and email from my palm3c because I have lost funsms and eudora:-(((

Last Friday(9/11/01), I have conducted a free talk on project management assisted by Peter WA Wood and KE Lau. about 15 people attended the talk. My objectives were to dissiminate the project management knowledge and as well as to get more people to really learn more about PM.

Yesterday, I beamed surah yaasin to Wangah and Azman.

Now, I am using BrainForest to keep my project financial and schedule data. At the same time , I am learning to program my ThinkDb for my business/personal applications.

My free RAM is only 1.4MB. I think we have used 80% of my memory and enjoyed many benefits from my palm111c. The only I want to install now is the softwares from natara.com so that I can hotsync with my MS Project 2000.

After bowling at The Mines, Nazley, Azmi , Hasni and me went for Kyros Kebab for our lunch. There , I loaded my palm111c with four books of Harry Potter and at the same time I install the TomeRaider and Isilo. Had fun ...

It is interesting to note that about 50% of the work done in organisations are projects in nature.

Met Nazley yesterday to reinstall most of my softwares. One software called the Brainforest is quite good to plan, monitor,control tasks in any project.To-day, I install palm desktop in my son's notebook.

I have just installed a project scheduling software for my palm111c. It is from BrainForest. Another more interesting one that I look forward to buying is the Project@Hand from www.natara.com. It is MS Project in my palm! To-day my supplier installed MS Project 2000 on my notebook.

A few days ago I lost all data and additional softwares in my palm3c. This was due to low battery:-((( Then, my palm needs to be reset. After a soft reset, flash memory dialogue box popped up and asked me to reformat. I did as instructed and lost my data and additonal sofwares!!! Now, I am not installing any flash memory. Lesson learnt.

On 9th Nov., 2001, I will giving a short discourse on Project Management at Ridzuan's office for free. My objective is to spread the knowledge and get everyone involved in any project to learn more about the PMBOK and the discipline of Project Management. Two days ago, I have attended a short course on MS Project 2000. Note: I am pleased and honoured to be appointed as project management consultant to MERCY on pro bono basis.

To-day I went bowling for the frist time at Flamingo with my palmx gang. I played two games -62 and 72. Not bad for first timers. But the interesting part is I scored 10 for the last two frames! That made my day to-day. Then we adjourned to Coffee Beans to talk over the games and did our normal 'beaming' with our palms;-)

Now, my palm carries surah Yaasin. I am grateful to Ibrahim and the software owner-www.zoozware.com May Allah swt reward them with 'pahala' and al-Jannah for their good deeds.

I am happy to note that afew of my fellow palmx members joined me to-day to attend a meeting with MERCY , I hope everyone will contribute within our capacity to support our felloe muslims in distress.

During the last BTM, we discussed about holding an outing with our MTB. It is planned on 28th Oct., at FRIM. Now, I better get myself ready for the trip and check my bike. At the same time, I need to buy a helmet, hand gloves and water bottle. Need to see Azlina for advice.

Yes! We had a wonderful BTM to-day at KL Sentral. About 15 people turned up-the BIGGEST so far!!

I am planning to have our BTM on 29.09.2001. It has been a while I have not been meeting my fellow palmxers.

m505 is quite seductive! When I tried it ,I love to have it. However, my palm111c is doing fine.

Visited Nokia 9210 at KLCC. Cool machine but a bit bulky for a phone.It sells for RM 2888! Nice to have ,but I will stick to my siemens 35 with palm3c.

MyPAD means my PAlm Diary.Not much about me but more between my palm111c and me working together.I got my palm111c on the 24th July,2001- more than a year ago. Before that I was using my palm111. Below is the link to my story how I get hold these gagdets.. http://www.geocities.com/mohdadib/Mypalm3c.html

The stories of my palm digital assistance with me as its avid user...

Continous Professional Development Yesterday I have the opportunity to meet up with my friend,the Director of JBAS. He is as concerned as I am regarding the quality of project management and the needs of young managers to be properly educated and guided in managing projects.When I told him that I organised project management talks for free, I ended getting a job to hold a free talk to his staff. Now, I must be more careful before I open up my big mouth.

RM 29 billions Project I thought I have seen the biggest project in Malaysia i.e The RM 9 billions KLIA project! ,However there is a bigger one which became the main topic of The Edge weekly today. It is the NPL ( non-performing loans)-a sum that is mind boggling and I wish ALL THE LUCK in the world to my friend Dato' Azman Yahya,the new kid on the block ( Malaysian corporate scence). In my personal experience, I found it easier to manage a road project compared to a corporate turn around.

Two days ago I met my long time friend who is the executive director of his construction company. When I asked what is main problem in managing his project,he smiled and told me that his biggest problem now is to secure projects for his company. During this economic slowdown, it is tough to get a project. Getting a contract is THE PROJECT by itself. I share his concern for he has 200 staff and a few millions ringgit worth of hardwares literally idling....

A few days ago, I was telling my technical savvy friends about my intention to use project central for my project management software.They told me that project central have some hiccups and recommended me to use quickplace from Lotus Notes. May be I got to try both softwares before I decide to use any of them?? Any comments?

To-day I met two young men who are interested to know more about project management. I believe there are a lot more of young people involved in project management and have little knowledge of the body of knowledge of PM and PM methodologies. However, not many of their bosses realised the importance of training these highly qualified technical personnels in PM. Many projects failed not because of the lack of technical knowledge but more on the lack of PM knowledge ,skills and experience. To my surprise, many govt. department and private corporations have very little budget on training despite having billions of project to implement:-(

PROJECT 2000 & PROJECT CENTRAL: I spent about one and the half hour with Mr Lau of CT Solution. He showed me the features of these project management softwares. I plan to use the product for my coming project. How I wish these softwares were available to me when I was a young project manager in the 70's and 80's. The technology is available to-day, but not many people are willing to learn, unlearn and relearn the new way of managing projects. Mr Lau contact no:03-89660300

To-day I received an article from WJ about building a happy family.I think it will take a life time to do that; and I believe it is easier to build a bridge. The knowledge and the discipline of project management could be applied to build a happy family. Don't you think so?

BEING WIRED AND GETTING WIRESLESS... Every time I happen to think about the use of ICT in project management in Malaysia, I am getting more worried. The technology is available and affordable; but alas my fellow project managers are still doing it in the old ways. The resistance to change is so big that only few dared to venture. How could we be world class project managers if we ourselves are not able to undergo the transformation?? May be what we need is a revolution in project management thinking and practice! Now, I must be looking for a leader to lead us...

WEB ENABLED PROJECT MANAGEMENT: A conference will be held in London on 18th and 19th September,2001. Contact: Tahir Raja Tel:+44(0)20 7647 2250 or email to: tahirr@marcusevansuk.com Conference Fees: GBP 1934.17

NEW TECHNOLOGY: To-day I read an article in Project(Magazine of the APM). It tells the story of a London -based company using a webcam to monitor the progress of GBP 36m retail development in St. Andrew's Square. That reminds me of my friend complaining to me that he had to travel 8 hrs from Kuantan to check the progress of work at a site in Cameron Highlands. I suggested to him to use a webcamera and a digital camera so that someone there can upload the picture file for him to view from his office in Kuantan. Sad to say, he keeps on complaining ...Old habits die hard. We have the technology, but not many are using it:-(

PROJECT CAR: Last week, Iread in the papers about a car that smashed itself against a coconut tree in Tumpat ,Kelantan. This is similar to what I observed some twenty years ago when I was working in JKR Pasir Mas ,Kelantan.It is called a project car by the locals. When I asked why, they told me that these cars are used to smuggle rice from Thai border to Pasir Mas! The smugglers are really dare-devils "project managers"! To them, smuggling is a project in its own right. Just imagine the efforts taken to plan,execute,monitor and control the smuggling activities. May be we all can learn something from them;-)

NEGOTIATION: Yesterday, I concluded one contract negotiation with my client. Thank God for the cordial compromise by both parties. It was over within one hour after two counter offers by either party. However, we put a lot of sleepless nights getting the documents ready to convince our client in the past one month. Arguement did take place when one party did not understand the other views and concerns. Longer time was taken in agreeing to the rates of the BQ when one was ignorant of the construction methods and equipment. The knowledge and experience of negotiators of the issues at hand is paramount in solving disagreements. Goodwill and relationship must be maintained through the process.

Welcome to the musings of XPROJECT! It contains snap shots at projects in Malaysia. I will try to write as often as I can about various aspects of projects and project management from my little window. Note: First posting on http://www.blogger.com