After I’ve convinced my company to use Joomla as their website engine about a month ago, it was time to move on into something else. Besides my website skills, I was also hired because of my experience in marketing the product that my company is now representing. I guess my company is so lucky to have a two job roles for the price of one. Nevertheless, multitasking is a valuable skill set these days and it will score you higher than the rest of other job candidates if you are looking for jobs.

My other job role includes to open and find new opportunities for the company. This is to bring in more businesses for the company and add more revenues. This is quite crucial because if in order to grow the company further, new establishment is needed. This will create more job opportunities, more activities and benefit everyone who is actively involved. Of course, you need to love your job first. So far, I’m enjoying my new job.

So, where were we? Oh yeah, The Ritz Carlton. I found out about a Facilities Management Conference and asked the organizer if we could have a partnership in promoting our product and services. One thing for sure, an event company would always welcome sponsors. So, after some dealings on both the organizer and my company, we finally agreed upon co-sponsoring the event. I think it was a good bargain because the ticket price for 2 person for the conference itself cost almost the same price as the sponsorship investment.

The conference was held at The Ritz Carlton Business Centre located just behind Starhill. I didn’t went into the conference room because I had to attend the sponsor table outside the room. Here is a list of what I like and what I don’t like about The Ritz Carlton Business Centre:

What I like:

1. The breakfast is exquisite, there are several types of tea bag selections, even the cup has lid on it. Not really sure what the honey is for (See the snapshot I’ve taken below).
2. Afternoon tea break is awesome. They serve canned soda for refreshment. My stomache was always full when I was there
3. They give you damp hand towel with lime flavour for your hand to feel fresh after lunch.
4. The couches are so comfortable and the atmosphere is delightful

What I don’t like:

1. There is no parking at the Ritz Carlton itself except for jockey parking which cost RM50 if I’m not mistaken. The only parking for the place is at Starhill shopping complex. I parked at an unpaved parking area right across, cost me only RM4 per day.
2. The toilet is so tiny for such a big area. I just can’t believe a business place like that has such tiny toilet. Only 4 person can occupy the toilet at one particular time although I do like the aromatherapy candle they put next to the sink.

Pictures and snapshots taken using my Sony Ericsson W810i cameraphone:

I wonder when I’ll be back there again for the food..

My brother has the same interest as me, he likes to try out new things which is internet-related. He is an active member of few Malaysian tech and trading forums. Last month, he got to know a guy who can register Celcom 3G broadband on your behalf and send it over to you by post. The only fee you pay him is just the courier fee. The Celcom 3G price is just the same as advertise that is RM68. A few days later, the package arrived:

Since this Celcom account wasn’t mine, I asked my brother to lend it to me for a while for me to do some testing and review. He uses a Dopod 838pro phone so he enjoys the 3G capability when using this Celcom 3G service. I don’t have a 3G phone yet, so I had to settle with my own Sony Ericsson W810i that only has EDGE capability. An EDGE connection can only serve a maximum speed of 200++kbps but that way better than dial-up connection. A 3G connection speed particularly UMTS is around 384kbps while the HSDPA is even more. I don’t know if Celcom’s connection is HSDPA, but I’ve used Maxis HSDPA connection before and I find it quite good. However, radio signal tends to distort according to the strength of radio waves and the surrounding of environment. So I can’t expect a fast and reliable connection all the time. Sometimes, the setting of your computer can dictate your connection. You need to tweak and fiddle around a little if you want more. The best internet connection is always the old fashioned hardline landline.

So, after installing Celcom 3G simcard on my phone, I noticed something, the Celcom connection in my room stated a GPRS connection. Oh well, what to do.. I then hooked it up on my Acer Aspire 3683 laptop, surfed a few websites and later on, documented some speed testing, here are some results based on my experiments:

The connection is not so bad after all eventhough it’s only on GPRS/EDGE. The only problem I faced is my phone tends to warm up when it is connected. That’s not really good. I left my laptop and phone connected throughout the night, the connection was pretty decent. One more thing if you noticed, the speed test is still stating I’m using TM Net. I’m not really surprised because it’s not really a secret that Telekom Malaysia owns most of Malaysian internet infrastructure. Anyway you look at it, it is still “inter” “net” conection, so you’d better appreciate it. At least you are “connected” instead of “disconnected”.

Last but not least, the TM Net Speedometer test:

If you are wondering why not buy the new 3G USB modem? It costs around RM1000 just to buy that fancy device. I would rather buy a 3G enabled phone for that. The choice is yours.