Problem Solving 101

Problem Solving 101 may not look like a book that we would find in the business and management shelf in a book store. In fact, I wouldn't know this is a management book if I didn't read about it in The Star's business section.

This book started as a simple guide to help schoolchildren in Japan develop critical thinking skills. The author uses his experience working with McKinsey, one of the world's most renowned management consultants, to introduce decision-making tools that have successfully applied in the business world, using a very simple and enjoyable approach.

Now before you think that that Ken Watanabe wrote this book, let me clarify that this Ken Watanabe is Kensuke Watanabe, not Ken Watanabe the actor from movies like The Last Samurai and Batman Begins.

Watanabe tells three stories in which he slowly guides readers in using the decision-making tools (I personally prefer the word method, because I think tools are things, not something abtract). The tools he introduces doesn't require anything more than some paper, a pencil and our wonderful brain.

The first story is about a rock band called The Mushroom Lovers who are worried about increasing the number of people attending their concerts. Watanabe starts off with main aspects of problem-solving like finding the root cause of a problem. In this case The Mushroom Lover must figure out the reasons why people come again or not come again to their concerts.

In the following story, an octopus named John decides to become a Hollywood CGI (computer graphics imagery) movie director after being blown away by a movie he watched with his friend, Sarah, a squid. But before that, he needs to get himself a computer so he can learn the basics of CGI.

And in the final story, we follow Kiwi, an aspiring football player who dreams of becoming professional. To make that dream come true, she must decides on which football school in Brazil she wants to attend.

Did I tell you that I wouldn't know this is a management book if I didn't read about it in The Star's business section?

The pages are delightfully illustrated by Allan Sanders, making this book appealing to virtually all ages (not something we can say about most management books). Being a management book, it is a bit pricey, but still worth the price in my opinion considering that it's in hard cover. I hope the publisher would release a cheaper soft cover edition soon. This is definitely one of the most cheerful management book I've ever read.

Check these out:
[ Problem Solving 101: the website ]
[ The website of illustrator Allan Sanders ]

Back to the study desk

Early this month I received a rather important letter. It was the acceptance letter to do a doctorate in Education that I applied for a few months back. When I got it the orientation week had already started. I missed several orientation programmes but I was fortunate to not have missed the most programme of all: the pledge ceremony. The pledge ceremony was the one that made us official students of the U.

And classes began the next week, which made me felt like I have just landed on an alien planet. A lot of things caught me by surprise, including the workload. In one of the subject, we are supposed to read 8 books, one of it over 500 pages long. The thinnest was about 40 pages long. Not that I'm complaining. I see this as a challenge, but I do worry about whether I can do well in the course or not.

I also needed to get used to being a student again. I realised that being a student was a different mindset altogether. A student is someone who is always asking, rarely assumes and realises that it is OK to be stupid.

I am now re-learning all this. Clearly, I have forgotten a lot of things. Please help pray for me. Many, many thanks.

HTML 5, CSS 3 dan kenangan membina laman web

Baru-baru HTML 5 dan CSS 3 telah diperkenalkan. Saya tidak pandai membuat analogi, tetapi percubaan terbaik saya untuk menggambarkan apakah Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) dan Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) dalam maksud yang kurang teknikal adalah: HTML ibarat isi dan tulang sesebuah laman web manakala CSS ibarat kulitnya. HTML digunakan untuk tujuan pengstrukturan laman web dan CSS digunakan untuk memberikannya rupa yang dikehendaki. Saya harap analogi ini tidak mengelirukan.

Semasa saya meneliti artikel-artikel yang membincangkan potensi serta kekurangan (buat masa ini) HTML 5 dan CSS 3, saya teringat pada zaman saya mula-mula belajar untuk membuat laman web. Percubaan pertama saya merupakan tugasan yang diberikan oleh tutor saya dalam subjek Multimedia. Ketika itu saya merujuk kepada dengan rakan saya, Ar. Bayangkan, saya seorang pelajar bidang komputer duduk berguru daripada seorang pelajar dari fakulti Bahasa Arab. Sebenarnya sesiapa pun yang boleh belajar untuk memanfaatkan Internet jika mempunyai minat dan kesanggupan untuk belajar.

Selepas 'ditauliah' oleh Ar, saya ke perpustakaan untuk mencari buku-buku berkaitan rekaan laman web. Saya telah meminjam dan menelaah beberapa buah buku dan mula berazam untuk membuat laman saya sendiri. Sasaran saya hanya sebuah laman web hanya sebuah laman web yang ringkas, memadai untuk saya bereksperimen menggunakan HTML dan CSS. Ketika HTML masih dalam versi 4.5 dan CSS pula versi 2.

Lama web pertama saya telah dimuat naik ke Geocities, sebuah perkhidmatan web hosting yang serba ringkas yang juga telah berhenti beroperasi pada tahun ini. Dengan kata lain, laman web saya yang ini sudah lenyap dari alam siber. (Salinannya yang asal pula telah lenyap akibat hard disk saya yang juga telah berhenti beroperasi.)

Pengalaman inijuga telah meyedarkan saya tentang pentingnya kandungan atau content. Apa gunanya sebuah laman web yang cantik pada luarannya tetapi lansung tidak mengandungi sebarang sebarang maklumat yang berguna? Tujuan utama orang mengunakan Internet adalah untuk mencari maklumat, bukan untuk mencuci mata dengan melihat laman web yang cantik-cantik. (Ya, saya sedar bahagian akhir ayat tadi boleh ditafsir dengan maksud lain.)

Ketika itu saya baru sahaja tamat pengajian pada peringkatan sarjana muda dan mula berfikir untuk bekerja. Namun perancangan Allah telah meletakkan saya di rumah di mana saya dan keluarga sibuk menguruskan arwah datuk saya yang sedang agak kritikal di hospital. Saya ke hospital pagi dan tengah hari, mengirimkan makanan kepada saudara yang menemani datuk dan menjemput mereka yang usai giliran meneman untuk pulang. Rutin ini memampukan saya mencuri-curi masa untuk eksperimen HTML dan CSS saya.

Pada masa yang sama, saya cuba untuk menulis kandungan untuk laman web saya yang kedua. Memandangkan kegilaan saya terhadap anime dan manga pada masa itu sedang melangit, saya memilih untuk menulis ulasan tentang beberapa siri yang saya telah atau sedang baca dan tonton. Namun tulisan saya yang paling panjang merupakan sebuah artikel mengenai kartunis Dato' Lat. Artikel yang termuat dalam dua muka surat laman web itu telah diilham oleh sebuah dokumentari tentang beliau yang disiarkan melalui Disovery Channel dan buku autobiografi beliau, Lat on Lat. Semasa saya kecil, ayah saya selalu membelikan saya buku-buku koleksi kartun beliau, antaranya Kampung Boy, Better Lat than Never, Mat Som dan Entahlah Emak. (Hingga kini saya masih mencari kedai yang menjual Town Boy). Sayang sekali ada di antara buku-buku ini yang hilang, kemungkinan besar tercicir semasa kami berpindah rumah.

Saya cuba untuk mencari laman web kedua saya, tetapi nampaknya laman web ini sudah tidak lagi wujud. Yang masih kekal bersama saya adalah ingatan pada saat-saat saya berkerut dahi kerana cuba memahami bagaimana HTML dan CSS berfungsi.

HTML 5 datang membawa perubahan-perubahan yang saya lihat sebagai amat memudahkan. Begitu juga CSS 3. Banyak perkara yang dulu terbatas oleh CSS 2 yang kini menjadi senang dengan adanya CSS 3. Ini termasuk kaedah yang lebih mudah untuk memuatkan video dan audio ke laman web menggunakan HTML 5.

Saya tidak bercadang untuk mengulas secara teknikal perubahan-perubahan ini. Cukuplah jika saya katakan bahawa untuk mempelajari rekaan laman web pada masa sekarang adalah lebih mudah berbanding dengan beberapa tahun yang lalu. Inilah realiti tentang pengetahuan teknologi; apa yang kita kuasai hari ini akan kelak digantikan dengan sesuatu yang baru dan lebih canggih. Kita hanya akan maju jika kita terus-menerus belajar untuk meningkatkan pengetahuan yang sudah ada.

Haid Menghalangi Ibadah? No Way!

Tentu sekali tidak. Wanita yang didatangi haid masih boleh (dan perlu) beribadah.

Ini mesej buku kecil comel ini, yang ditulis oleh M.Radzi Rachman.

Sebahagian daripada tanggungjawab seorang lelaki ialah mempelajari hal-ehwal fiqh wanita. Ilmu ini bukan sahaja penting bagi para suami dan bapa, malah bagi mereka yang berperanan sebagai wali serta penjaga. Kita diwajibkan untuk memimpin dan memperelok para wanita di dalam aspek ibadah mereka. 

Keitka solat, puasa, haji dan beberapa lagi ibadah khusus tidak boleh dikerjakan, masih banyak lagi ibadah-ibadah khusus dan umum lain yang boleh dikerja, tanpa mengira sama ada seseorang wanita itu dalam keadaan suci atau tidak. Antara ibadah yang dimaksudkan ialah berzikir, di mana mereka boleh mengisi setiap waktu solat dan dengan tasbih, takbir, selawat, istighfar dan sebagainya. Perbincangan ini dilanjutkan kepada perkara-perkara umum lain seperti menuntut ilmu, menguruskan rumah tangga dan bekerja.

Ada banyak perkara menarik yang dibawa oleh penulis, antaranya dalam bab menuntut ilmu ada disebut tentang salah seorang guru kepada Imam Syafie yang merupakan seorang wanita iaitu Syeikah Syuhrah. Beliau sangat dihormati atas ketinggian ilmu beliau hingga beliau dikenali sebagai "fakhr an-nisa' (kebanggaan kaum wanita.)"  Saya amat kagum dengan fakta ini kerana jarang sekali alim ulama yang wanita disebut atau dibincangkan. Seorang lagi alimah yang diperkenalkan ialah Mu'nisat al-Ayyubiyyah, saudara perempuan  Salahuddin Al-Ayyubi. Berputar fikiran saya memikirkan bagaimanakah bapa kedua-dua adik beradik hebat ini berjaya mendidik mereka hingga menjadi manusia yang berbakti kepada agama dan umat.


Haid Menghalangi Ibadah? No Way! ditulis dan diterbitkan di dalam Bahasa Indonesia.

The Lord God Made Them All

As the gap between this book and the previous book Vets Might Fly (in the series it's actually Vet in a Spin, but I never wrote about it) was a very wide one, I wondered if I would still be captivated by these books. I reached for this one nervously only to prove to myself that the Herriot charm still has its hold on me.

No longer a stranger to farmers and folks of Darrowby (a fictional name of an actual town called Thirsk) of Yorkshire, Herriot reunites us back with familiars faces, and I'm not just talking about the two-legged ones. The animals, amazingly, are excellent at unmasking who we humans really are through the ways we deal with them.

Take for instance the Walt Barnett, the town's richest man. Known for being a tough no-nonsense businessperson, Barnett revealed his softer side when called Herriot to look at his cat, Fred. Fred's predicament moved Barnett to tears, something he sees as an embarassment. In Herriot's view however, Barnett's display was very admirable. 

This book also documents two international journeys embarked by Herriot as travelling veterinarian, one is onboard a livestock-filled ship bound for Klaipėda, in present day Lithuania, and another similar mission via airplane to Istanbul, Turkey. The first trip is written in more detail since it was longer, and it made me want to experience a long distance journey onboard a ship, although I hope I don't get caught having dinner while there's a storm raging, I prefer not to chase after my food when it rolls across the table.

As for the Herriot charm having stronger effect on me, I blame him for introducing his two lovely children in this book.Young Jimmy has grown up and very much taken by his old man's profession. He did become a veterinarian later in life. As a little boy he got a kick from going along his father to the farms, opening gates so their car can drive through and went about the place to announce to the owner that they've arrived. Little Rosie makes her appearance as well, taking over her elder brother's role when he started going to school. Herriot steered Rosie into going to medical school to heal people instead of animals. He was concerned for her about other things that comes with the business of veterinary, like having chased by an angry bull or kicked by annoyed cow. The physical aspect of the job may not suit a female practitioner in the long run.

And this ultimately leads to the final book, Every Living Thing. I won't speculate on what may be in store ahead, but I surely don't like the feeling that I have when I'm about to reach the end of something good.

[ Read this too: Todd Wisti visits The World of James Herriot museum ]

Eidul Adha Mubarak 1430H!

Salam, everyone. Especially to our fellow Muslims performing their Haj and Qurban, may Allah accepts our good deeds. I'm taking a time off to mull over a few interesting opportunities. Hopefully they'll turn to something worthwhile, insya-Allah. Those travelling home, have a safe trip and joyous days ahead with family and loved ones.

Akutagawa's In a Grove available for download

In a Grove is an early modernist short story consisting of seven varying accounts of the murder of a samurai, Kanazawa no Takehiro, whose corpse has been found in a bamboo forest near Kyoto. Each section simultaneously clarifies and obfuscates what the reader knows about the murder, eventually creating a complex and contradictory vision of events that brings into question humanity's ability or willingness to perceive and transmit objective truth.

Over at Feedbooks I found this short story by Akutagawa Ryunosuke, which is included in Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories, but titled In a Bamboo Grove. Two other short stories, Rashoumon and Hana, are also available there. My recommendation is to start with this one, it's the most compelling of the three (but feel free to disagree). All the stories are set in medieval Japan.

[ Written once upon a time ago : Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories ]

Inkscape project: newspaper article mock-up

It's been ages since I last played with Inkscape. This is my mock-up of a Sunday newspaper article that I did not too long ago. In the process I picked up on a few things such as:

• using align to make the sides of text bodies align properly
• using rulers to divide to page into sections
• finding out that Inkscape doesn't do drop caps (not yet, but hopefully in the near future it will)

Overall, a fun project where I explored how Inkscape handles text.

Micro and not micro

A question floating in my mind often lately: are there any differences between blogging and microbloging?

I find the idea of a microblog very interesting.

Lightweight file exploring with Snowbird

If your machine is a bit dated like mine, you'll notice the occasional time lag when opening a large folder or drive directory. We have to wait for seconds or minutes before Windows can display every file within.

I once tested a folders merge software that was supposed to combine two or more folder into one. I didn't realised at the time that I also made two mistakes. The first one was choosing huge folders with a lot of files in them for the test. And the second was I stopped the merging process before it was finished (after realising the first mistake). I ended up with a huge number duplicated files, over 1000 of them. While most of them are small in size, their total size is about 1GB.

Trying to find and delete them using Windows Explorer was taking too much time. As I mentioned just now, it took about a minute on average for my slow machine to display the files. The slowdown happens because the process of displaying the large number of files was eating up a lot of the available memory.

To speed things up, I decided to use Snowbird. Snowbird may look like a skinny cousin of Windows Explorer, but you'll be smiling ear to ear when it flies into action.

Snowbird doesn't offer a lot features other than the basic file functions of search, open, copy, paste, delete, rename and properties. No thumbnail for previewing image and video files or FTP connection or other fancy stuff. Which is great for the job of finding and displaying large number of files instantly. I only wanted to delete the duplicated files.

To my own surprise I finished the job in just minutes, instead of days as I thought if I were using Windows Explorer. Snowbird definitely soared beyond my expectation. It's very fast, minimalistic and lightweight in terms of memory usage. Snowbird a standalone .exe app that doesn't require an installation.