Seems that ubuntu.com.my went down again, so thanks to mypapit's action to just get something going again, the local support site for ubuntu loco for Malaysia is now at:

Don't you just hate those auto-reply emails to mailing lists and such? Auto-replies are still important though, especially if you are on extended vacation leave and want people who are trying to contact you to be aware of it.

The Unix way to do this is through the vacation(1) command and formail or in my case procmail.

vacation(1) is smart in the sense that it only provides replies once, and keeps track of this in a .vacation.db file in your home directory. Your auto reply message is a plain text file also in your home directory as .vacation.msg

From: kaeru@inigo-tech.com (Khairil Yusof)
Subject: At the beach suckers!
Precedence: bulk

I asked that there would be no salt in the margerita.. but but
there is salt in it. 

I could burn this resort down you know.. sir.. sir.. 

The bulk header will be respected by mailing lists and the auto reply will not be sent.

For your procmail recipe, just add (check your paths) and username.

:0 c
| /usr/bin/vacation username

The c will tell it to continue and go on to other filters after it so you will have a copy of the original email, or forward it etc.

When you're back, just remove the files and procmail entry.

Zope Component Architecture

One thing that I didn't quite get was how typical SME offices are set up in Malaysia. Especially in KL for IT companies. They're small, hard to get to (or find within blocks of buildings with weird entrances) and not to mention expensive parking fees. Then you have the indirect costs of your staff coming in for a long commute. Finally you have expensive fixed cost of rent. The so called incubators are not much different either, except they're even further out and have even more expensive rent vs space.

So what can an IT startup do?

• startup as SOHO
• co-locate your servers, and you don't have to pay high price of broadband to your office and setting up servers there.
• telecommute, individual connections are much faster than than shared office line.
• Use FOSS best practices of online collaboration, internally.
• for physical meetings use virtual offices, which are now available around KL. It can be as low as RM15/hr. Physical space on demand.

Keep the savings from being lean to build up capital, especially cash reserves.

Eventually you will still want the benefits of a permanent office, but the efficiencies of the above can still be applied to keep costs low. By this time you will have ample cash reserves to deal with startup costs of physical office without having to take a small loan.

Next up will be using advantages of FOSS for small IT companies.

As kedai blogs, it's back to work time.

Had a good real week off, without stress attacks for the past 3 years. Partially it's due to my inexperience of managing stuff. Impossible is Nothing (tm - Addidas), is not a sustainable way of doing things for every project you take, especially when they are going concurrently. So with my new interns, I will also work with them to mentor not just on technical aspects, but also things like personal time management and project management.