Happy New Year! Well, almost. Before I can raise my glass and tip my columnist’s hat to the one-year birthday of the Freeware Files (and Murphy’s Law), it’s time we get down to the time-honored tech tradition at this time of year: the awards list.

Unlike my brethren at Maximum PC, who have put together a fine list of general freeware applications that you should check out regardless of the time, I’ve sat down and gone through the hundreds of apps and utilities that I’ve covered throughout this year. Some, you might know. Some, you might have forgotten about. And some apps and utilities that I’ve used, but not covered, still deserve special mention in this general roundup of the year’s best freeware.

So put on your party hat and get your downloading finger ready. For each winner, I’ll give a little mention of why said app is worth its salt, why it differs from what you’ll natively find in Windows, and whether it’s a must-download or a maybe-consider. After all, it would be crazy to download 20 apps in any given setting, no? You just want the best. This list, friends, represents the best… and in some places, the unknown!

Let’s begin.

Best Text Tool: Texter

Texter saves so much time for die-hard, hand-coding Web geeks, it’s not even funny. And, to be honest, it’s amazing just how simple this Lifehacker-borne utility is. Here’s how it works. Fire up Texter and you can create a string of text to serve as a replacement for whenever you type a specific element on your machine. For example, you could use Texter to replace every time you type <img> with the full <img src ="…"> reference, and start your cursor right where you should be typing the link to said picture. The possibilities are endless and the carpal tunnel bills are reduced. For that, Texter wins a Freeware Files Award.

Does Windows have a built-in alternative for this tool? No. Next program!

Download it here!

 

Best Disc Mounter: Virtual CloneDrive

Daemon Tools usually takes the cake for the best disc image mounting application. However, successive iterations of the application have made it damned near impossible to avoid installing some kind of adware or toolbar alongside the application. As that has the potential to greatly hack off a number of Maximum PC readers, out goes Daemon and in its place comes a worthy competitor, Virtual CloneDrive

What’s a disc image? What’s mounting? In short, there are plenty of programs out there that rip the contents of an optical disc (the legal contents, I hope) to a giant archive, otherwise known as an .ISO file. Mounting programs like the easy-to-use Virtual CloneDrive allow you to fool your computer into thinking that said archive is actually a living, breathing, spinning CD in your optical drive. Never scratch your discs again, ensure faster copies from your "disc" to your hard drive, and give yourself a handy backup for your critical data… then mount it with Virtual CloneDrive!

Does Windows have a built-in alternative? Not for ISO files it doesn’t!

Download it here!

 

Best Distraction Eliminator: Temptation Blocker

Temptation Blocker is downright cruel. But sometimes, love just has to be tough. When you launch this utility, you’re presented with a list of programs. Select a program that distracts you from staying on-task with your work, set a time, then hit the "Get Work Done!" button. If you try to access the application before the time expires, you’ll be presented with an annoying, 32-digit code to type in before said program unlocks. In theory–in theory–the annoyance of typing such a string will keep you from accessing your Firefox browser, which will keep you from typing in "cuteoverload.com" and hitting enter, which will keep you from losing your job… et cetera.

If Windows had a built-in alternative, you wouldn’t be looking at cute animal pictures right now!

Download it here!

 

Best RSS Aggregator: FeedDemon

For all its features, FeedDemon’s greatest attribute is that it takes the acts of subscribing to and reading a number of different syndicated feeds and makes it as plainly presented and as easy as can be. Those are a lot of words to swallow but, really, they speak to the core of the FeedDemon’s simple experience. That doesn’t mean that this program isn’t packed full of other useful features, however. Built-in synchronization allows you to keep the contents of your FeedDemon applications across multiple workspaces in check via Google Reader. A wealth of options for organizing, tagging, and marking your feeds helps you keep your growing syndication list as organized as possible. In short, FeedDemon simply rocks–shoot, it even supports tabbed browsing!

I suppose Windows has the built-in RSS display via the Windows Sidebar, but come on.

Download it here!

 

Best Offline Twitter App: TweetDeck

This one’s tough. TweetDeck shares a number of features with competing programs and, to be honest, has one of the least eye-catching interfaces of any of them–but there’s ugly, and there’s functional. The app’s huge, columnar interface does much to enhance the process of organize Twitter streams by raw feed, friend groupings, searches, lists… the list, as it were, goes on. Better still, the synchronization functionality built into TweetDeck allows you to share your settings across multiple versions of the application on your many PCs and mobile devices. It might not be pretty, but TweetDeck works–and works well. Now if only there was a way to save a history of previously downloaded tweets. That 200-tweet limit per column just doesn’t do it for a power user!

Windows? Twitter? Haha.

Download it here!

 

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Best Windows Diagnostic / Disaster Avoidance Tool: Ultimate Boot CD

If you have a copy of Windows XP sitting around to create said Ultimate Boot CD, then you’re in for a treasure-trove of helpful utilities and diagnostics tools designed to save the day when your system starts going haywire. In fact, a number of the apps and utilities built into this live disc–including MemTest86+, Darik’s Boot and Nuke, HDClone, and CPU Burn-In–are programs that I would recommend anyway. The fact that these, and a whole lot more, are included on a single bootable package really speaks to the smorgasbord of protection and configuration options that Ultimate Boot CD can deliver for your system. If you don’t have a copy of this sitting around for troublesome times, you only have yourself to blame!

Simply put, this CD beats the pants off of Windows’ built-in Recover Console.

Download it here!

 

Best BitTorrent Client: uTorrent

Why is uTorrent one of the top-used applications by BitTorrent downloaders? Two reasons: functionality and foresight. On its face, uTorrent delivers a simple interface coupled with a number of helpful functions for the novice user. You can download BitTorrents with but a few clicks of a mouse, handpick the files you want to grab out of said BitTorrents, and shut down the program when the download is done. More advanced users can make use of the program’s extensive configuration options, including the ability to customize download speeds by time and access the program’s interface through an easy-to-operate Web UI.

Although they currently exist in a release candidate version of the app, uTorrent’s impressive future features include live streaming for video BitTorrents and a brand-new "access anywhere" Web UI, as well as support for BitTorrent’s free DNA content delivery service. And before you ask, no, Windows can’t download Torrent files by its lonesome.

Download it here!

 

Best CD/DVD/HD Burner: ImgBurn

For a no-nonsense image burning experience, whether you’re making a simple DVD or a ton of Blu-Ray discs in succession, look no further than ImgBurn. This application supports every Windows OS under the sun for both 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems. Better, it requires no updates for working with a laundry list of common optical drive models. Not only can you burn a huge range of image files and audio formats, but you can also build video discs for all three major formats based on their respective folder types: DVD (VIDEO_TS), HD-DVD (HVDVD_TS), and Blu-ray (BDAV / BDMV). New support for folder structure modifications joins a preexisting (and handy) shutdown mechanism for flipping off your system when a burn is complete. ImgBurn has truly etched its way into our hearts with a laser of love.

Windows might have its own CD burning functionality built into the operating system, but it’s nowhere near as comprehensive as ImgBurn! 

Download it here! 

 

Best Multi-System Takeover Utility: Input Director

Here’s the setup: You have more than one PC at your desk. Whether you’re rocking two laptops, a laptop and a desktop, or two beastly desktop machines, it can be a real pain to switch between the two. Prior to the birth of Input Director, you’d either need to have a separate mouse and keyboard for each machine (ew) or use a program like Synergy to control both using a the single input devices of a host machine. But all has not been perfect in Synergy land. The once-useful application has long since gotten fussy and a new king has taken its place on the throne of desktop control. Input Director offers a ton of additional configuration options for using one mouse and keyboard to control a whole arsenal of systems. It’s jam-packed with setup and encryption options, and its actual process of connecting multiple PCs together runs more smoothly than any similar application I’ve tested. And Input Director even supports shared clipboards flawlessly–a tricky task that will allow you to use the contents of any system’s clipboard on any other machine.

Remote desktop be damned, Windows: Input Director is the new hotness for multi-system control. 

Download it here! 

 

Best Desktop Organizer: Fences

Nothing is more painful than a messy desktop. And Windows sure doesn’t do much to sweep up your clutter. Aside from a Desktop Cleanup wizard and a few auto-arranging tools, you really don’t have much of an ability to organize or, dare I say it, group your icons under a collective theme. The most you can do is drag correlated icons to different parts of your screen and hope that your monitor is large enough to handle your sprawling shortcuts.

You could also try installing Fences. In fact, I strongly suggest you do so. This super-organizer allows you to lock off parts of your desktop–or, at least, create virtual walls for your desktop icons–which you can then use to pen similar icons into larger zones. Go ahead and make these pens, or fences, as large or as small as you want. If you have too many icons to fill the space, a handy little scroll bar allows you to run through more of your shortcuts without affecting the rest of your desktop’s aesthetics. And even if you’re fence-crazy, getting to the bottom of a clean desktop is but a few mouse clicks away. Integrated transparency and color customization options ensure that your desktop will still look as pretty as can be regardless of how you’ve organized your icon farm.

Download it here! 

 

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Best Desktop Makeover: Rainmeter

if you want to totally revamp the look of your desktop without sacrificing a huge amount of system resources to do so, then Rainmeter is your ticket to a fresh new user interface. Not only can you build awesome backgrounds and elegant, transparent menus and sidebars into your desktop, but you can easily modify the look and feel of any theme you want without resorting to massive amounts of text editing or complicated configuration scripts. A new RainBrowser tool gives you an easy means for previewing new themes you’ve downloaded in a manner that’s quite similar to Firefox’s theme browser. Use Rainmeter to get easy and elegant access to your email, RSS feeds, the weather, iTunes feeds, wireless statuses… truly, anything you want. As the developers themselves say, "Every inch of a skin is completely customizable." And you can always download even more third-party themes and tools for making your desktop even that much cooler (and useful!)

Download it here!

 

Best Application Pack: Ninite

The half-Web-app, half-installer-package Ninite has almost singlehandedly ruined the very awards roundup you’re reading. Why’s that? Because it’s the perfect way to download and install a mass of amazing freeware and open-source applications and utilities in one, automated shot. Words almost fail me in regards to how much time Ninite has saved me during a typical Windows wipe and re-installation. Here’s why: When you hit up the Ninite Web site, you’re presented with a huge list of excellent, free programs to check off. You’re creating a customized installer package that, once you’re done, saves to your system in the form of a single executable. Run that, and the Ninite-created installation package will install every program you selected onto your machine using said program’s default settings. What used to take hours of finding, downloading, and installing now takes the better part of minutes.

If Windows had a built-in package manager, that would be pretty great, wouldn’t it?

Download it here! 

 

Best Security Tool (Overall): Sandboxie

The name of the security game is virtualization. After all, the best way to keep your computer safe from harm is to isolate the elements that could perform unwanted activities or open the door to external threats. Sandboxie is an excellent application that allows you to extend the power of virtualization to any program on your PC. It’s a must-have for applications that you’re a little unsure about–just launch said questionable program into its own virtualized environment, and no havoc it could possibly create will ever affect the underlying contents of your normal operating system. Like a little cloud in the sky, the application is forever removed from the rest of your system.

Sandboxie is extremely easy to operate. Loading new applications into separate virtual environments doesn’t require you to spend hours of poring over support forums, as the application itself is fairly straightforward to use. And that’s just the combination you want to see in an award-winning freeware application: simple use, superb functionality. Sandboxie is the ultimate protection tool for your PC.

Download it here! 

 

Best Security Tool (Antivirus): Microsoft Security Essentials

Step one: It’s free. Step two: It’s one of the highest-rated free antivirus and anti-malware apps out there. Step three: It’s unobtrusive and easy-to-use. Bonus step: Microsoft makes it, and they’ve managed to make a product that’s durable, comprehensive, and simple.

It’s funny how there was all this apprehension and skepticism about a Microsoft-based security program before its grand Security Essentials tool was released. And yet, here we are months after the fact, and MSE has catapulted itself to the top of the freeware list for its stellar virus and malware detection abilities. Who would have thought? Crazier still, AV-Comparatives.org just recently named MSE as its best-performing, freeware, anti-malware application of the whole bunch.

It’s almost too much to type, but there you have it. Microsoft Security Essentials is the freeware program to pick up if you’re at-all concerned about the general security and welfare of your system. MSE features real-time protection elements, daily updates for virus and spyware definitions, and easy scheduling for fuller scans… and that’s about it. The program isn’t laden with a ton of options but, in this case, maybe that’s a good thing considering just how well it performs with what little it needs you to input.

Download it here! 

 

Best Web Browser: Google Chrome

You made it this far, so I’ll unleash the biggie: Chrome has done a great job of picking up the pace with its development this year. The browser is fast–faster than Firefox when rendering multiple tabs and dealing with JavaScript apps. Chrome is also a more secure platform than Firefox, thanks to the browser’s built-in virtualization that splits each tab into an environment that’s kept isolated from the contents of your system as a whole. If a piece of malware or Web exploit affects Chrome, it’s not going to get past this iron wall to disturb your PC without some major help from a tangential attack.

The long-awaited launch of Chrome Extensions now puts Chrome on equal footing feature-wise with Mozilla Firefox. Although the browser still has some catching up to do to reach Firefox’s huge swath of available add-ons, it’s only a matter of time before cross-platform plugins become a matter of course for developers. And given that Google Chrome has in some way inspired the launch of Google’s mighty Chrome OS project–and will serve as Chrome OS’s flagship application–it’s hard to deny this browser an award for its bootstrapping, if nothing else.

Download it here! 

 

There are a lot of freeware apps I left off this list. There are a lot of freeware apps that I haven’t even begun to explore. And, for that matter, there are a lot of freeware apps that are simply lame. Keep tuning in to the Freeware Files as we head throughout 2010, and I’ll do my best to keep getting you all the interesting new apps and utilities that will turn your normal desktop into a tricked-out super-rig. For great justice, of course. Thanks for reading in 2009!

David Murphy (@ Acererak) is a technology journalist and former Maximum PC editor. He writes weekly columns about the wide world of open-source as well as weekly roundups of awesome, freebie software. Befriend him on Twitter, especially if you have an awesome app or game you’re dying to recommend! 

 

 Sourced from: Maximum PC Features RSS Feed

It’s been exactly a month since we last visited the topic of Google Chrome. With both Windows and OSX beta versions of the browser now supporting add-ons, and with nearly 1,500 possible extensions flooding the Chrome Extensions "marketplace" since December 8, 2009, it’s about time to take another look at the overflowing mass of Chrome add-ons. Why? To build the perfect browser, of course. Allow me a moment to monologue:

I’ve been a Mozilla Firefox user for a long, long time. Simply put, I love extensions. Being able to build new elements into my browsing experience, from Cloud-based bookmark synchronization to Sudoku puzzles, has been one of the more awesome elements of using this piece of software. If only it was that easy to enhance or extend the usefulness of any program one installed!

I’ve been hesitant to switch to Chrome for this very reason–without add-on support, I’m missing out on 50- to 75-percent of the awesomeness I’ve build into my admittedly slower and more memory-hogging browser, Firefox. But that’s an argument that’s slowly dying away. A number of Firefox’s best add-ons have made the conversion over to Google Chrome, and that’s exactly what I’ll be exploring in this Freeware Files roundup.

These extensions are the crème de la crème. The best. The add-ons you should rush to pack into any new installation of Google Chrome, period. But that’s not all–I’m also going to take a look at some apps that interact with Google Chrome or, in some cases, replace Google Chrome entirely… you’ll see what I mean when it comes to interesting alternatives!

Apps

Chrome Privacy Protector

When Google Chrome installs on your machine, it installs with a unique ID that, in theory, could make the browser traceable to you in some fashion. I’m not suggesting that Chrome has some huge security breach or that there exists a huge record of everybody’s installation / browsing / add-ons / whatever. However, the fact of the matter remains–there’s an identifying number tied to your installation. If you’re a privacy geek, that’s not cool. And if that’s not cool, then Chrome Privacy Protector is the app you’ll use to get rid of this variable.

Download it here!

 

Iron-Version or ChromePlus

These two browsers, variants of Google Chrome (technically, the open-source Chromium version of the browser), each offer a different set of customizations and built-in add-ons that might be just what you’re looking for if you find the standard version of Chrome to be a bit lacking.

Here’s the deal: Iron-Version focuses on building a more private browsing experience, in that it strips out a number of features that would be used to send Google information of any sort. No longer will your browser have a user ID associated with it, send any data to Google in any form, update itself from Google’s servers, or use any alternative error messages when your browsing experience goofs up.

ChromePlus, on the other hand, doesn’t concern itself with privacy as much–more usefulness. Although this Chrome variant still strips out parts of the whole "sending information to Google" routine, it also packs a lot of great functionality directly into the browser that you’d otherwise have to find via add-ons.

For example, this version of Chrome allows you to double-click in the area of any tab to close it–take that, tiny "x" button. You can quickly open up new tabs by dragging a link on a page to anywhere on that page, and you can also navigate back and forth through your Chrome browsing experience using built-in mouse gestures. Even better, you can load up the Internet Explorer rendering engine directly via Chrome for pages that don’t play well with Google’s browser.

Download Iron-Version here and ChromePlus here!

 

On page two: The Top 5 must-have Google Chrome Add-ons!

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Add-ons

Google Mail Checker Plus

If you don’t use Gmail, I apologize in advance. However, this add-on is tremendously useful if you only use the Webmail version of the app, but still want to know as soon as new messages hit your inbox without having to keep a Gmail tab open all the time. Google Mail Checker Plus sticks a little icon next to your address bar and–unlike Google Mail Checker–gives you a host of configuration options, including the amount of time it should wait between checking for new mail and whether you want to always connect to Gmail via SSL, amongst other options.

Download it here!

 

Xmarks Bookmark Sync

If you haven’t heard about Xmarks Bookmark Sync, you’ve been living under a rock. Google Chrome can synchronize its bookmarks via your Google account–a great solution for keeping the list of your favorite sites up-to-date regardless of what machine you’re using Chrome on. However, if you use multiple browsers throughout your day, the built-in synchronization for Chrome will never catch the tabs in your other favorite apps. Xmarks can and will. This add-on does an excellent job of keeping a consistent database of your bookmarks regardless of the browser you’re surfing with.

Download it here!

 

LastPass

Read the description of Xmarks above. Now remove the part about Google Chrome synchronizing anything and replace all instances of the word "bookmarks" with "passwords." In short, LassPass is an awesome way to securely keep track of all your major passwords across one or many browsing apps. Instead of having to remember a ton of different passwords for all your sites, LastPass does this all for you. Once it recognizes that you’re on a site with a saved password, it’ll send an encrypted version of your login to the site automatically–a keylogger won’t work to steal your information as you won’t actually be typing in your credentials to access a site after the first time! Of course, there’s more to LastPass than just this feature, but it’s certainly one of the add-on’s bigger selling points.

Download it here!

 

Session Manager

If you’re like me, you keep a ton of tabs open for research, archiving, and "I’ll get to it later" excuses. And when your browser crashes or otherwise screws up, the built-in auto-restore might not work to speed–on Firefox, for example, an errant pop-up window can suddenly become the "last saved session" the browser remembers. If that happens, you can kiss the 40+ tabs you were saving goodbye. Session Manager allows you to save and restore browsing states as if it was nothing. This add-on is the perfect tool for preventing unexpected browser tab loss forevermore.

Download it here!

 

Adblock or Adthwart

You asked for ‘em and here they are! If Web advertising hacks you off–and I’m talking about obtrusive, in-your-face, or offensive Web advertising–then you’ll want to grab theAdblock or Adthwart add-ons to nuke these unpleasant additions to your favorite Web sites. I’m not actually sure which add-on I like better, to be honest. Your success with either will depend on your own personal preference. Both do a great job of using predefined lists to accelerate your blocking experience. However, in doing so, you might be stripping the monthly food budget of a lot of hardworking Web folk so, uh, tread… carefully?

Download Adblock here and Adthwart here!

 Sourced from: Maximum PC Features RSS Feed

Translated into Malay by Rudy Herman Sinen
Reviewed by Umi Kalsom Mohd Azuddin

Mengapa ramai orang yang telah berjaya tetapi kemudiannya gagal? Satu sebab utama ialah kerana kita menganggap kejayaan itu proses satu hala. Jadi, kita lakukan segala-galanya untuk menuju kejayaan. Tetapi selepas kita memperolehnya. Kita rasa kita sudah berjaya, kita kekal di zon selesa, dan langsung kita berhenti dari melakukan usaha yang menjadikan kita berjaya. Dan tidak lama kemudian, kita mula merosot. Dan saya katakan ia boleh berlaku. Kerana ia berlaku kepada saya.

Demi kejayaan, saya berusaha gigih, saya mendorong diri saya. Tetapi saya berhenti, kerana saya anggap, “Oh, saya sudah mencapainya. Saya boleh berehat dan bersenang-senang.”

Demi kejayaan, saya sering cuba memperbaiki dan melakukan usaha yang baik. Tetapi saya berhenti kerana saya anggap, “Hei, saya sudah bagus. Saya tidak perlu meningkatkan diri lagi.”

Demi kejayaan, saya bijak menghasilkan idea-idea yang bagus. Kerana saya lakukan perkara-perkara mudah yang dapat menghasilkan idea. Tetapi saya berhenti. Kerana saya anggap saya sudah hebat dan tidak perlu berusaha menghasilkan idea. Idea akan muncul secara ajaib. Tetapi apa yang muncul hanyalah ketandusan kreativiti. Saya tidak mampu menghasilkan apa-apa idea.

Demi kejayaan, saya sering fokus kepada klien dan projek, dan tidak menghiraukan soal wang. Lantas, keuntungan datang melimpah-ruah. Dan tumpuan saya mula beralih. Tiba-tiba saya lebih kerap bercakap kepada broker saham dan agen hartanah saya, dan bukannya kepada klien saya.

Demi kejayaan, saya sering lakukan perkara yang saya suka. Tetapi saya terlibat dengan perkara yang saya tidak suka, seperti pengurusan. Saya pengurus yang paling teruk di dunia. Tetapi saya anggap saya patut melakukannya. Kerana sayalah presiden syarikat itu.

Namun, tidak lama, fikiran saya bercelaru. dan saya, secara lahiriah sangat berjaya, tetapi secara rohaniah saya sangat murung. Tetapi saya seorang lelaki, saya tahu cara memperbaikinya. Saya beli sebuah kereta pantas. (Ketawa) Ia tidak membantu. Saya lebih laju tetapi masih murung.

Jadi, saya berjumpa doktor saya. Saya berkata, “Doktor, saya boleh beli apa yang saya mahu. Tetapi saya tidak bahagia. Saya murung. Benar apa yang mereka katakan, tetapi saya tidak percaya sehingga ia berlaku kepada saya. Wang tidak boleh membeli kebahagiaan.” Dia berkata, “Tidak. Tetapi ia boleh membeli Prozac.” Lalu, dia berikan saya ubat anti depresan. Dan kemurungan saya hilang sedikit. Tetapi begitu juga semua kerja saya. Kerana saya tidak fokus kepada kerja. Saya tidak peduli jika klien menghubungi saya atau tidak. (Ketawa)

Dan klien tidak menghubungi lagi. (Ketawa) Kerana mereka lihat yang saya tidak lagi berkhidmat untuk mereka, Saya hanya melayani diri saya. Lantas, mereka salurkan wang dan projek kepada orang yang boleh berkhidmat dengan lebih baik.

Justeru, tidak lama kemudian perniagaan jatuh terhempas. Rakan niaga saya, Thom, dan saya, kami perlu memberhentikan semua pekerja kami. Hanya tinggal kami berdua dan kami hampir muflis. Dan itu yang bagusnya. Kerana tanpa pekerja, tidak ada sesiapa yang perlu saya uruskan.

Saya kembali melakukan projek-projek yang saya suka. Saya rasa seronok semula. Saya bekerja lebih gigih. Dan untuk ringkaskan cerita: saya lakukan semua perkara yang membawa saya kepada kejayaan. Tetapi ia bukan satu perjalanan yang singkat. Ia mengambil masa tujuh tahun.

Akhirnya, perniagaan berkembang lebih besar. Dan apabila saya kembali mengikuti lapan prinsip ini, kerunsingan di kepala saya hilang sepenuhnya. Dan pada satu hari saya bangun tidur dan berkata, “Saya tidak perlukan Prozac lagi.” Dan saya membuangnya dan tidak memerlukannya lagi.

Saya belajar bahawa kejayaan bukan satu jalan sehala. Ia tidak seperti ini. Ia sebenarnya lebih seperti ini. Ia suatu perjalanan yang berterusan. Dan jika kita mahu mengelakkan “sindrom kejayaan menuju kegagalan”. Kita ikut lapan prinsip ini. Kerana bukan sahaja ia cara kita mencapai kejayaan, malah ia cara kita mengekalkannya. Semoga kejayaan anda akan berterusan. Terima kasih banyak. (Tepuk tangan).

English

Why do so many people reach success and then fail? One of the big reasons is, we think success is a one-way street. So we do everything that leads up to success. But then we get there. We figure we’ve made it, we sit back in our comfort zone, and we actually stop doing everything that made us successful. And it doesn’t take long to go downhill. And I can tell you this happens. Because it happened to me.

Reaching success, I worked hard, I pushed myself. But then I stopped, because I figured, “Oh, you know, I made it. I can just sit back and relax.”

Reaching success, I always tried to improve and do good work. But then I stopped because I figured, “Hey, I’m good enough. I don’t need to improve any more.”

Reaching success, I was pretty good at coming up with good ideas. Because I did all these simple things that led to ideas. But then I stopped. Because I figured I was this hot-shot guy and I shouldn’t have to work at ideas. They should just come like magic. And the only thing that came was creative block. I couldn’t come up with any ideas.

Reaching success, I always focused on clients and projects, and ignored the money. Then all this money started pouring in. And I got distracted by it. And suddenly I was on the phone to my stockbroker and my real estate agent, when I should have been talking to my clients.

And reaching success, I always did what I loved. But then I got into stuff that I didn’t love, like management. I am the world’s worst manager. But I figured I should be doing it. Because I was, after all, the president of the company.

Well, soon a black cloud formed over my head and here I was, outwardly very successful, but inwardly very depressed. But I’m a guy, I knew how to fix it. I bought a fast car. (Laughter) It didn’t help. I was faster but just as depressed.

So I went to my doctor. I said, “Doc, I can buy anything I want. But I’m not happy. I’m depressed. It’s true what they say, and I didn’t believe it until it happened to me. But money can’t buy happiness.” He said, “No. But it can buy Prozac.” And he put me on anti-depressants. And the black cloud faded a little bit. But so did all the work. Because I was just floating along. I couldn’t care less if clients ever called. (Laughter)

And clients didn’t call. (Laughter) Because they could see I was no longer serving them, I was only serving myself. So they took their money and their projects to others who would serve them better.

Well, it didn’t take long for business to drop like a rock. My partner and I, Thom, we had to let all our employees go. It was down to just the two of us, and we were about to go under. And that was great. Because with no employees, there was nobody for me to manage.

So I went back to doing the projects I loved. I had fun again. I worked harder. And to cut a long story short: did all the things that took me back up to success. But it wasn’t a quick trip. It took seven years.

But in the end, business grew bigger than ever. And when I went back to following these eight principles, the black cloud over my head disappeared altogether. And I woke up one day and I said, “I don’t need Prozac anymore.” And I threw it away and haven’t needed it since.

I learned that success isn’t a one way street. It doesn’t look like this. It really looks more like this. It’s a continuous journey. And if we want to avoid “success to failure syndrome.” We just keep following these eight principles. Because that is not only how we achieve success, it’s how we sustain it. So here is to your continued success. Thank you very much. (Applause)

Translated into Malay by Rudy Herman Sinen
Reviewed by Umi Kalsom Mohd Azuddin

Sudah bertahun-tahun saya berasa jengkel kerana sebagai seorang sejarawan agama, Saya amat sedar mengenai pemusatan sifat ihsan dalam semua agama dunia yang utama. Setiap satu daripadanya telah mengembangkan versi mereka yang tersendiri apa yang dipanggil sebagai Aturan Emas. Ada kalanya ia dalam versi yang positif — “Lakukan kepada orang lain sepertimana anda mahu diperlakukan”. Dan yang sama pentingnya ialah versi yang negatif — “Jangan lakukan kepada orang lain apa yang anda tidak mahu dilakukan kepada anda”. Bertanyalah kepada hati anda sendiri. Carilah apa yang membuat anda rasa terseksa. Dan selepas itu jauhi, dalam sebarang keadaan sekalipun daripada melakukan perkara yang menyakitkan itu terhadap orang lain.

Dan orang ramai telah menekankan kepentingan sifat ihsan, bukan hanya kerana ia sedap didengar tetapi kerana ia berkesan. Orang mendapati bahawa jika mereka sudah melaksanakan Peraturan Emas itu seperti kata Confucius, “sepanjang hari dan setiap hari,” bukannya soal melakukan amal untuk hari itu sahaja dan kemudian kembali kepada kehidupan yang rakus dan keegoan. Tetapi untuk melakukannya sepanjang hari dan setiap hari, anda melucutkan diri anda dari dunia anda sendiri, anda melakukannya lagi, dan anda dapat mengatasi diri anda sendiri. Dan ia membawa anda kepada suatu kewujudan yang dipanggil Tuhan, Nirvana, Rama, Tao. Sesuatu yang melangkaui apa yang kita ketahui dalam alam kita yang penuh keegoaan.

Tetapi anda tahu anda tidak akan mengetahuinya setiap masa, bahawa ia sungguh penting dalam kehidupan beragama. Kecuali bagi beberapa keadaan yang menarik, seringkali apabila orang-orang agama berkumpul, pemimpin agama berkumpul dan memperdebatkan doktrin yang sukar difahami atau menimbulkan kumpulan yang saling membenci atau mengecam terhadap homoseksualiti atau yang seumpama itu. Lazimnya, orang tidak mahu bersifat ihsan. Saya kadangkala melihat apabila saya bercakap di hadapan golongan orang agama kelihatan mimik muka yang membantah di wajah mereka sebab selalunya orang mahu rasa dirinya betul. Dan itu sudah tentu menafikan matlamat latihan itu.

Mengapa saya berterima kasih kepada TED? Sebab mereka melibatkan saya secara beransur-ansur daripada kajian saya yang berasaskan buku-buku dan membawa saya ke Abad Dua Puluh Satu membolehkan saya bercakap kepada pendengar yang lebih luas lagi lebih daripada apa yang saya boleh bayangkan. Sebab saya rasa hal ini memerlukan satu tindakan segera. Jika kita tidak mampu untuk melaksanakan Aturan Emas itu secara sejagat, supaya kita melayani semua orang, tidak kira di mana dan siapa mereka, seolah-olah mereka sama penting seperti kita, Saya sangsi bahawa kita akan mempunyai sebuah dunia yang berdaya maju untuk diserahkan kepada generasi akan datang.

Satu tugas untuk zaman kita, salah satu tugas utama dalam zaman kita, ialah untuk membina sebuah masyarakat sejagat, seperti saya katakan, di mana orang ramai boleh tinggal bersama secara damai. Dan pelbagai agama, sepatutnya membuat sumbangan yang besar tetapi sebaliknya dilihat sebagai sebahagian daripada masalah. Dan sudah tentu bukan sahaja orang agama yang percaya kepada Aturan Emas itu. Ini adalah sumber bagi semua prinsip moral. Sikap empati yang dibayangkan ini, meletakkan diri anda di dalam keadaan orang lain,

Saya beranggapan, kita mempunyai pilihan. Sama ada kita terus menyebarkan atau menekankan aspek dogmatik atau tidak bertoleransi mengenai kepercayaan kita, atau kita boleh kembali ke rabai, Rabbai Hillel, orang yang lebih tua hidup sezaman dengan Jesus, yang apabila ditanya oleh seorang jahil untuk merumuskan seluruh ajaran Yahudi tatkala dia sedang berdiri pada satu kaki, dia berkata, “Apa yang kamu benci, jangan lakukannya kepada jiran kamu. Itulah Taurat dan segala yang lain hanyalah ulasan.”

Dan rabai dan paderi gereja yang awal yang berkata sebarang tafsiran kitab yang menggalakkan kebencian dan penghinaan adalah haram. Dan kita perlu menghidupkan semula semangat itu. Dan ia tidak akan berlaku begitu sahaja kerana semangat kasih sayang menghambatnya Kita mesti merealisasikannya, dan kita boleh melakukannya, dengan komunikasi moden yang telah diperkenalkan oleh TED. Saya berasa sangat teruja dengan respons daripada semua rakan kita.

Di Singapura kita ada satu kumpulan yang akan menggunakan piagam itu untuk memulihkan perpecahan yang baru-baru ini berlaku dalam masyarakat Singapura. dan beberapa anggota Parlimen mahu ia dilaksanakan secara politik. Di Malaysia, sebuah pameran seni akan diadakan di mana para pelukis terkemuka akan melibatkan orang ramai, orang muda, dan menunjukkan bahawa sifat ihsan juga ada di akar umbi semua karya seni. Di seluruh Eropah, masyarakat Islam sedang menganjurkan acara dan perbincangan membincangkan agenda pokok sifat ihsan dalam Islam dan agama-agama yang lain.

Tetapi ia tidak boleh berhenti di situ. Ia tidak boleh sekadar melancarkannya sahaja. Pengajaran agama, di sinilah yang kita sudah tersasar, hanya menumpukan kepada kepercayaan yang sukar difahami. Pengajaran agama mesti sentiasa mendorong ke arah amalan. Dan saya berniat untuk mengusahakan hal ini sehingga akhir hayat. Dan saya mahu terus bekerjasama dengan rakan-rakan kita untuk melakukan dua perkara — mendidik dan merangsang pemikiran ihsan. Pendidikan kerana manusia, kita sudah sungguh jauh daripada sifat ihsan. Orang ramai selalu menganggap ia bermakna bersimpati terhadap seseorang. Sudah tentu anda tidak faham erti ihsan jika anda hanya mahu memikirkannya sahaja. Anda mesti mengamalkannya.

Saya mahu mereka melibatkan media kerana media adalah penting dalam membantu menghapuskan pandangan yang stereotaip kita terhadap orang lain. yang memecah-belahkan sesama kita. Begitu juga dengan para pendidik, Saya mahu belia-belia memahami dinamisme, kedinamikan serta cabaran gaya hidup ihsan. Dan juga memahami ia memerlukan kecerdikan yang tajam, bukan sekadar rasa keasyik-asyikan.

Saya menyeru kepada para cendekiawan untuk meneroka tema ihsan itu di dalam tradisi mereka sendiri dan tradisi kaum lain. Dan mungkin yang terpenting sekali, untuk mendorong kepekaan mengenai pembicaraan yang tidak ihsan. Oleh kerana mereka mempunyai piagam ini, sama ada mereka memiliki kepercayaan atau tidak, mereka rasa diperkasa untuk mencabar pembicaraan yang tidak ihsan itu, teguran yang menghina daripada pemimpin agama mereka, pemimpin politik mereka, daripada para peneraju industri. Kerana kita boleh mengubah dunia, kita mempunyai keupayaan.

Saya tidak pernah terfikir untuk menyebarkan piagam itu dalam talian. Saya terperangkap dalam dunia lama di kalangan sekumpulan pakar yang berkumpul di sebuah bilik dan mengeluarkan satu lagi kenyataan yang sukar difahami. Dan TED memperkenalkan saya satu cara yang baru untuk berfikir dan menyampaikan idea. Itulah yang mengagumkan mengenai TED. Di dalam bilik ini, dengan semua kepakaran ini, jika kita gabungkan kesemuanya kita mampu mengubah dunia. Dan sudah tentu masalah itu ada kalanya kelihatan sukar diatasi.

Tetapi saya mahu memetik merujuk kepada seorang pengarang British, seorang pengarang Oxford yang jarang saya memetiknya, C.S. Lewis Dia menulis sesuatu yang kekal dalam fikiran saya sejak saya membacanya semasa di bangku sekolah dahulu Ia ada di dalam bukunya bertajuk The Four Loves. Dia berkata, dia membezakan di antara cinta berahi, apabila dua orang bertatapan mata, terpesona. Dan dia membandingkannya dengan cinta persahabatan. Apabila dua orang berdiri sebelah-menyebelah, bersendel bahu, dengan memandang ke arah satu matlamat yang sama.

Kita tidak perlu saling jatuh cinta, tetapi kita boleh menjadi sahabat. Dan saya yakin. Rasa hati saya sangat kuat semasa perbincangan ringkas kami di Vevey, bahawa apabila orang daripada pelbagai kepercayaan bergabung tenaga, berganding bahu untuk satu matlamat, perbezaan akan pudar. Dan kita belajar untuk berbaik-baik. Dan kita belajar hidup bersama dan saling berkenal-kenalan Terima kasih banyak. (Tepuk tangan)

English

For years I’ve been feeling frustrated because as a religious historian, I’ve become acutely aware of the centrality of compassion in all the major world faiths. Every single one of them has evolved their own version of what’s being called the Golden Rule. Sometimes it comes in a positive version — “Always treat all others as you’d like to be treated yourself.” And equally important is the negative version — “Don’t do to others what you would not like them to do to you.” Look into your own heart. Discover what it is that gives you pain. And then refuse, under any circumstance whatsoever to inflict that pain on anybody else.

And people have emphasized the importance of compassion, not just because it sounds good, but because it works. People have found that when they have implemented the Golden Rule as Confucius said, “all day and every day,” not just a question of doing your good deed for the day and then returning to a life of greed and egotism. But to do it all day and every day, you dethrone yourself from the center of your world, put another there, and you transcend yourself. And it brings you into the presence of what’s being called God, Nirvana, Rama, Tao. Something that goes beyond what we know in our ego-bound existence.

But you know you’d never know it a lot of the time, that this was so central to the religious life. Because with a few wonderful exceptions, very often when religious people come together, religious leaders come together, they’re arguing about abstruse doctrines or uttering a council of hatred or inveying against homosexuality or something of that sort. Often people don’t really want to be compassionate. I sometimes see when I’m speaking to a congregation of religious people a sort of mutinous expression crossing their faces because people often want to be right instead. And that of course defeats the object of the exercise.

Now why was I so grateful to TED? Because they took me very gently from my book-lined study and brought me into the Twentyfirst Century, enabling me to speak to a much, much wider audience than I could have ever conceived. Because I feel an urgency about this. If we don’t manage to implement the Golden Rule globally, so that we treat all peoples, wherever and whoever they may be, as though they were as important as ourselves, I doubt that we’ll have a viable world to hand on to the next generation.

The task of our time, one of the great tasks of our time, is to build a global society, as I said, where people can live together in peace. And the religions, that should be making a major contribution are instead seen as part of the problem. And of course it’s not just religious people who believe in the Golden Rule. This is the source of all morality. This imaginative act of empathy, putting yourself in the place of another.

And so we have a choice, it seems to me. We can either go on bringing out, or emphasizing the dogmatic and intolerant aspects of our faith, or we can go back to the rabbis, Rabbi Hillel, the older contemporary of Jesus, who, when asked by a pagan to sum up the whole of Jewish teaching while he stood on one leg, said, “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the Torah and everything else is only commentary.”

And the rabbis and the early fathers of the church who said that any interpretation of scripture that bred hatred and disdain was illegitimate. And we need to revive that spirit. And it’s not just going to happen because a spirit of love wafts us down. We have to make this happen, and we can do it with the modern communications that TED has introduced. Already I’ve been tremendously heartened at the response of all our partners.

In Singapore we have a group going to use the charter to heal divisions recently that have sprung up in Singaporean society, and some members of the parliament want to implement it politically. In Malaysia there is going to be an art exhibition in which leading artists are going to be taking people, young people, and showing them that compassion also lies at the root of all art. Throughout Europe, the Muslim communities are holding events and discussions discussing the centrality of compassion in Islam and in all faiths.

But it can’t stop there. It can’t stop with the launch. Religious teaching, this is where we’ve gone so wrong, concentrating solely on believing abstruse doctrines. Religious teaching must always lead to action. And I intend to work on this till my dying day. And I want to continue with our partners to do two things — educate and stimulate compassionate thinking. Education because people, we’ve so dropped out of compassion. People often think it simply means feeling sorry for somebody. But of course you don’t understand compassion if you’re just going to think about it. You also have to do it.

I want them to get the media involved because the media are crucial in helping to dissolve some of the stereotypical views we have of other people, which are dividing us from one another. The same applies to educators. I’d like youth to get a sense of the dynamism, the dynamic and challenge of a compassionate lifestyle. And also see that it demands acute intelligence, not just a gooey feeling.

I’d like to call upon scholars to explore the compassionate theme in their own and in other people’s traditions. And perhaps above all, to encourage a sensitivity about uncompassionate speaking. So that because people have this charter, whether whatever their beliefs or lack of them, they feel empowered to challenge uncompassionate speech, disdainful remarks from their religious leaders, their political leaders, from the captains of industry. Because we can change the world, we have the ability.

I would never have thought of putting the charter online. I was still stuck in the old world of a whole bunch of boffins sitting together in a room and issuing yet another arcane statement. And TED introduced me to a whole new way of thinking, and presenting ideas. Because that is what is so wonderful about TED. In this room, all this expertise, if we joined it all together we could change the world. And of course the problems sometimes seem insuperable.

But I’d just like to quote, finish at the end with a reference to a British author, an Oxford author whom I don’t quote very often, C.S. Lewis. But he wrote one thing that stuck in my mind ever since I read it when I was a schoolgirl. It’s in his book The Four Loves. He said that, he distinguished between erotic love, when two people gaze, spellbound, into each other’s eyes. And then he compared that to friendship. When two people stand side by side, as it were, shoulder to shoulder, with their eyes fixed on a common goal.

We don’t have to fall in love with each other, but we can become friends. And I am convinced. I felt it very strongly during our little deliberations at Vevey, that when people of all different persuasions come together, working side by side for a common goal, differences melt away. And we learn amity. And we learn to live together and to get to know one another. Thank you very much. (Applause)