Friday, August 08, 2008

The golden boy of MAS

Lack of ­knowledge in ­programming didn’t stop Sharul Isahak from ­developing a ­system that saved millions of ringgit for his company.


SMART GUY: Sharul designed a solution that saved MAS big bucks.

A Malaysian Airline System Bhd employee spent many a night burning the midnight oil to design a database solution that rivals commercial systems. And in doing so, Sharul Isahak said he saved the high-flying company RM70mil. MAS has almost 90 aeroplanes, each with millions of spare parts, which makes managing the maintenance of the planes an unenviable task. Engineers had to rummage through stacks of files from many different departments to retrieve maintenance reports before a plane could be serviced. A more efficient solution was urgently needed to track parts and keep record of the maintenance works. That is what spurred Sharul, who has worked as an engineer for MAS for 15 years, to create E-Promis (Engineering Project Management System) for managing aircraft maintenance. It took Sharul, 35, and his colleagues — production planning and control executive foreman Azlie Saufi, 32; system and standard superintendent Mohd Rodzuan, 42; and licensed aircraft engineer Ding Daw Swee, 37 — nine months to perfect E-Promis. Mohd Rodzuan was in charge of making sure that E-Promis complied with the company policy and aviation authority requirements while Ding and Azlie were in charge of getting feedback from 5,000 MAS engineers.


Going digital

Before this there was a big pile of paperwork tracking maintenance work but all that changed with E-Promis. “Formerly we had five separate paper filing systems. Now it’s all digital, and for us it means 50% less manual work,” he said. “It was very difficult to search for data at the time because most of it was on paper and the details were handwritten. This translated to a waste of effort and time,” he said.



THE TEAM: (l-r) Azlie, Mohd Rodzuan, Ding and Sharul took nine months to perfect E-Promis.


“At any one time there will be 20 planes being serviced, and we are now able to provide instant updates for each plane. Also, every task is documented,” he said. E-Promis archives all the maintenance work carried out and allows users to track each step of the process from start to finish, he said. “It helps manage aircraft ­maintenance in terms of planning, execution and analysis. Routine maintenance has to be done on a plane every five to 10 years,” said Shahrul. “E-Promis also tracks the planned man hours as well as actual man hours spent on each task,” he said. This is crucial for billing other airlines that service their planes with MAS because maintaining a plane is a very complex process, he said. Currently, airlines such as AirAsia and Jetstar service their planes with MAS.


Alternative solution

Designing E-Promis was not a simple affair because Sharul had to look for the cheapest means possible to create the software. “This meant looking at open-source solutions. Instead of platforms such as Microsoft or Sun, we chose LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP),” he said. Plus, E-Promis is a web-based system, which makes it easily accessible from any terminal. Sharul is the sole programmer and architect of the software but what is even more impressive is that he had zero knowledge of programming. “I started from scratch. It took me countless hours doing research on programming. I really pushed myself to the limit," he said. “I have a diploma in IT. But that wasn’t enough for what was required to develop E-Promis. And I learnt from the biggest library there is — the Internet.” But not coming from a programming background has its advantages, according to Sharul. “A lot of programmers are very creative and feature-oriented. They tend to put in a lot of features but forget the most important ingredient — human interaction,” he said. “This results in systems that are too hard to use and too complex.” Also, the system was perfected through a lot of trial and error work but at the end of the day, it was worth it, he said.

Looking back, he said he remembers that one of his lecturers who taught Information Systems at APIIT (Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology) telling him that he would make a good programmer. “He mentioned that to become a good programmer, one must have problem-solving skills and only now, I realise that he was correct. “Programming needs a lot of effort, passion, creativity, focus and most of all, the will to develop something with purpose,” he said. It was a round the clock effort for Sharul, as he was the sole programmer of the project. “I had to slot in programming work in between my daily tasks. If I didn’t find enough time to do it at work, I would continue it at home and that was a big challenge,” he said. And he is not going to rest on its laurels, as E-Promis is just the beginning. “E-Promis is only one component that we are working on now. The major goal here is to have an enterprise system that handles more things and integrates data across the organisation.” “The goal is to have the system ready in one year.” It looks like that there will be even more days of burning the midnight oil for Sharul and his team.


The Star
5th August 2008

Friday, July 25, 2008

Jauhi Amalan Baca Ramalan Bintang

Oleh Hasliza Hassan
bhnews@bharian.com.my

Kepercayaan kepada ahli nujum, tukang tilik bawa kepada kekufuran

SOLAT mereka yang membaca ramalan bintang sama ada di akhbar, majalah atau di internet tidak akan diterima Allah selama 40 hari, tidak kira mereka percaya atau sebaliknya kerana perbuatan itu sama seperti berjumpa dengan tukang ramal.

Pensyarah fakulti Syariah dan Undang-undang Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM), Nik Salida Suhaila Nik Saleh, menjelaskan perkara itu berdasarkan ulasan ulama terkenal Yusuf al-Qardawi mengenai hukum membaca ramalan bintang.

Katanya, walau seseorang itu tidak membenarkan apa yang dibaca, solatnya tetap tidak diterima selama 40 hari dan jika membaca serta membenarkan pula ramalan itu, maka orang itu dikatakan kufur kepada ajaran Muhammad.

Bagaimanapun katanya, jika membaca dengan tujuan untuk membantah, menjelaskan dan mengingkari amalan syirik, hukumnya dituntut malah menjadi wajib kerana tujuan memberi pengajaran kepada orang lain.

"Jelas amalan meramal, membaca dan menaruh sikit rasa yakin apa dikatakan ramalan bintang itu perlu dijauhi mulai hari ini. Ini bukan perkara main-main atau seronok-seronok kerana ia bercanggah dengan hukum Islam," katanya.

Katanya, perkara itu juga jelas daripada hadis riwayat Muslim bahawa Rasulullah SAW bersabda yang bermaksud: "Sesiapa yang datang kepada dukun kemudian dia membenarkan terhadap apa yang dikatakan olehnya, maka solat orang itu tidak diterima Allah selama 40 hari."

Perbahasan mengenai minat masyarakat hari ini terhadap ilmu ramalan termasuk membaca horoskop dibincangkan Nik Salida bersama Al-Fadhil Kadi Daerah Temerloh, Badli Shah Alauddin, dalam program Halaqah terbitan TV9 yang disiarkan malam Ahad lalu dengan tajuk Bintang 12.

Program yang mengulas mengenai ayat 105, surah an-Nahl, mengajak penonton menghindari perbuatan berjumpa atau mempercayai tulang tilik dan tukang ramal kerana Allah memberi amaran mengenai golongan pembohong itu.

Nik Salida berkata, tidak dinafikan ramai yang mengatakan tujuan mereka membaca ramalan bintang adalah suka-suka tetapi amalan bermula daripada suka-suka itu akhirnya menyebabkan mereka menjadi obses seterusnya terpengaruh dengan apa yang dibaca.

Katanya, ada kalangan masyarakat hari ini yang melanggan ramalan bintang melalui khidmat pesanan ringkas (SMS) untuk mengetahui apa yang diperkatakan mengenai nasib mereka atau perkara bakal dilalui mereka setiap hari, minggu atau bulan.

Sedangkan, perbuatan itu bukan saja merosakkan akidah malah menyebabkan hidup mereka tidak keruan kerana pengaruh ramalan itu sedikit sebanyak memberi kesan kepada aktiviti atau perancangan mereka pada hari itu.

"Jika tidak percaya atau untuk suka-suka kenapa hingga melanggan SMS horoskop. Maknanya bangun pagi kita mahu tengok apa yang diramalkan untuk kita hari itu. Begitu juga dengan membaca di akhbar dan majalah, kenapa kita hendak tahu ramalan.

"Jika katanya dalam bab rezeki apa yang diperoleh tidak setanding kerja dilakukan, maka akan timbul perasaan malas buat kerja sebab rezeki yang dapat sikit saja. Kesan ramalan ini bukan saja pada akidah, juga aspek psikologi.

"Daripada suka-suka itu juga apabila kebetulan perkara diramalkan itu benar berlaku ia mula menerbitkan kepercayaan yang akhirnya menyebabkan mereka jatuh ke lembah kepercayaan perkara karut-marut ini," katanya.

Badli Shah berkata, golongan yang percaya kepada Bintang 12 atau ramalan tukang tilik mengenai untung nasib atau hari baik dan tidak adalah mereka yang tidak percaya ketentuan Allah serta ciptaannya.

Beliau berkata, Allah sudah memberi amaran mengenai golongan itu di dalam al-Quran di mana Allah murka dan mengatakan mereka sebagai golongan pembohongan serta penipu kerana mendahului takdir Allah.

Katanya, apa yang dikhuatiri ialah disebabkan ramalan itu umat Islam lupa bahawa setiap sesuatu yang terjadi itu adalah dengan izin Allah dan ini memberi kesan daripada sudut akidah mereka.

"Jika Allah tidak izinkan perkara itu berlaku, ia tidak akan jadi. Tukang ramal pusinglah daun terup atau biarlah burung dia bercakap tetapi tanpa izin Allah tidak akan berlaku. Malangnya kita tengok, zaman moden ramai yang kembali percaya dan mencari petunjuk daripada zodiak," katanya.

Katanya, kepercayaan kepada ramalan terutama tukang tilik dan ahli nujum boleh mendatangkan kesan negatif seperti menyebabkan pergaduhan antara suami isteri, permusuhan sesama jiran atau sahabat karib.

Contohnya, isteri yang diberitahu mengenai sikap suami atau ramalan bahawa suami akan berkahwin lagi pastinya menyebabkan berlaku perbalahan dan paling malang lagi jika perkara itu tidak benar sama sekali.

Rasulullah SAW turut berdepan dengan kelompok masyarakat Arab yang taksub dengan ramalan dan kiraan bintang hingga Baginda menyebut akan tiga golongan itu terdiri daripada mereka yang mampu meramal bintang, meramal barang hilang dan melakukan ramalan berdasarkan pergerakan bintang di langit.

Malah, Baginda SAW pernah didatangi beberapa orang yang meminta Baginda meramal masa depan orang Arab tetapi Baginda memberitahu, jika diketahui perkara ghaib nescaya dirinya sudah mendapat kemewahan serta terlepas dari musibah.

Mengulas mengenai sejarah Bintang 12, Badli Shah berkata, kepercayaan itu berasal dari Mesopotania, daerah asal orang Babylon terletak antara sungai Tigris dan Euphrates dan kini terletak di tenggara Iraq.

Ilmu itu berkembang sejak Babylon kuno 200 tahun sebelum masihi dan secara bertahap. Amalan dan kepercayaan itu semakin berkembang hingga tahap yang dikenali sebagai horoskop atau Bintang 12 yang mengaitkan keperibadian dengan tarikh lahir berpandukan bintang.

"Contohnya bintang Capricorn untuk mereka yang lahir 22 Disember hingga 20 Januari ikut mitos Yunani ialah lambang kambing. Kambing itu bernama Almateus dan pernah beri air pada Dewa Zeus iaitu dewa tertinggi bagi bangsa kuno ketika kecil.

"Oleh itu, bagi mengenang jasa kambing itu ia dijadikan bintang dan bercahaya di langit. Kesimpulannya, Capricorn itu kambing saja. Di sini pun banyak kambing, tidak perlu tengok ke langit. Umat Islam perlu renung sejenak adakah bintang ini sesuai dengan peribadi Muslim.

"Sesuai ke jika umat Islam percaya kepada bintang kambing biri-biri atau lambang orang lelaki gagah tuang air dalam tempayan besar sedangkan banyak perkara lain lebih bermanfaat yang boleh kita fikirkan," katanya.

Justeru, beliau menasihati kepada umat Islam supaya menjauhi amalan membaca ramalan bintang atau tulang tilik walaupun untuk suka-suka kerana boleh memberi kesan kepada akidah serta amalan solat yang dilaksanakan.

Sumber: Berita Harian
Tarikh: 25 Julai 2008

Monday, March 24, 2008

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Monday, February 25, 2008

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Tuesday, December 11, 2007

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- Gundam 00
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- Bleach (Latest Episode on Thursday)
- Naruto Shippuuden (Latest Episode on Friday)

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