Funny and True: How NOT to use Powerpoint

Learn from other's mistake about building a company

It is important to learn from other people's mistake. If you want to start your own technology company you need to read the following blog post about what the owner of mycarpoolstation.com had gone through.

I wish there are more company owners out there who are willing to share their own experience in such a great detail.

Direct link to the original post: Click Here

How to stop windows from auto restart after auto update

One thing that I really hate about Vista (or maybe it is windows update) is that it will automatically reboot my system at night without my agreement. I am all for having the latest update, but it has destroyed my works many times already. Sometimes I wrote down quick note in notepad as a quick todo list, and I usually have firefox opened up a number of website to do my work. Today I woke up and see them all gone again. AARRrrrrr..

So I found out a quick group policy option from the internet to disable auto-restart. Do it now if you use windows.

Mac OSX becomes more appealing to me again.

What soft skills a leader should possess

The followings are the three important soft skills that the profession of Leadership in Asia class taught us:

1) Have a board knowledge on different issues in the world
2) Be able to persuade people
3) Have a real interesting in people

Birthday Toys!

I received many cool gifts for my birthday this year! They are:
1) Apple iPhone
2) Sony Reader PRS-505
3) Wifi Detection T-shirt
4) 8-bit Tie

Thanks My Wife, Mom and Daniel!

[Updated:] Also thanks Lewis for the arrangement of the iPhone purchase!

Happy~~!

Good Lessons from Bill Gross

The followings are some of the good lessons we could learn from Bill Gross:

Read the full article here:

"We like to challenge the status quo, to take on something that other people wouldn't do to solve a big problem."

"if a customer is already being served, but just a little bit less efficiently, that's not as exciting as a customer with a problem that no one is trying to solve."

"It's not a matter of how cheap you can start the company. You also need to have a way to stop other people from doing the same thing once they see that your idea is taking off."

"So I think the biggest lesson we've learned is that you need to find a way to raise enough money and spend it slowly enough that you can stick around until everybody catches on to your idea. The race is not to run out of your money first - it's to be there at the finish line."

Free Lecture Video from UC Berkely

UC Berkely has released some of their lecture videos for FREE on youtube. The most interesting one to me is the Search Engine lecture. Although the video is from 2005, it is still good if you want to understand search engine. I need to find some free time to go through them.

Hope they could put more classes there. Are they available at iTunes store too?

Lessons Learned from Business Simulation Class

Just finished the 4 full-days intensive (8:30AM-9PM) Business Simulation Class. This class is about Retail and Manufacturer relationship and how to do business in a win-win situation. Even though our team didn't win the game. I learned quite a lot from this class.

Lessons learned:
- Our strategy is valid, but the execution could be much better.
- Advertising is important, but we need to really understand the effect and the return.
- Need to spend more time on the financial data by doing a more detail analysis.
- When the company is in crisis, focus on the fundamental.
- Need to prepare better for negotiation. What is your bottom line? Don't just give discount, ask for something!
- Challenge your assumption. If the assumption is wrong, you will make a fatal mistake.

Also got a chance to meet some old friends from the original KxCracker Team. I am glad that they are doing well.

Overall, it was a lot of fun.

Ten Questions with Jeffrey Pfeffer Article

Ten Questions with Jeffrey Pfeffer is a good interview article with lots of good suggestions on how to manage the company better. A good read.

Virtual Barber Shop

Remember to wear your headphone and close your eyes! The sound is unbelievable.

Kwik-E-Mart for Real!

Check out this Real Kwik-E-Mart (Converted from a 7-11)! I want to visit it too. Can't wait for the new Simpson Movie.

Could your iPhone do this??

Managing both Management and Programming Responsibilities

Here is a great article about how to manage both programming and management responsibilities at the same time. I was in this situation not long ago where I have to manage the project, but also needed to work on part of the application because of resource constraint. Focus is really the key! Luckily the resource constraint problem should be solved very soon. For the next two projects coming it seems that I don't need to do any programming myself.

Is he the luckiest guy or what?

Check out this poor soul...haha

Long time no writing

I was too busy lately and I didn't have time to write any new post. Anyway, I am doing fine with the new company. The job is quite challenging dealing with a couple projects and new responsibilities. I am also taking the time to get used to the new working environment. So far so good. The people that I work with are nice and quite smart too.

First day of work in a new company

Today is my first day at the new company. The people are really nice and I sure hope I could deliver and help this company to grow. There are many challenges ahead and I will work hard to overcome them. Good luck to me!

Web App 101 and What is Web 2.0?

If you ever want to build your own Web application and make money out of it, you should read this TechCrunch article first. You need to answer the following three questions:

1. Who is it aimed at?
2. Why will they use it?
3. Will they pay for it?

If you are still wondering what Web 2.0 is? Head over here and see read the very funny presentation called "How to bluff your way in Web 2.0". Download PDF Slides and watch the Video.

More FREE courses from UC Berkery and MIT.

Great news to those who want to learn on their own! UC Berkery releases a set of videos and podcasts for some of their classes. I am particular interested in the Intro to Statistics class. I never thought Statistics is that useful until I started my MBA study. I will probably go through some of those video to refresh my memory in the subject.


On a related note, MIT will offer 1,800 of their courses free online by the end of the year for people to self-study.

Finally! joelyen.com!

After so many years, I finally purchased joelyen.com. I didn't think it is useful until I start writing blog. Right now it is doing a forward to blogspot.com. Hopefully in the future I could have my own blog system installed and host somewhere.

Or I could simply use Google Apps to have my own email address using Gmail. Nice!

Freemium, a web business model

As described in this blog post, there are only a handful of biz models for web apps, and there is one called Freemium.

"Most web apps make money either from advertising, subscriptions, or a mix of both. An app like Blinksale -- an invoice management tool -- is free for a small number of invoices sent monthly, and then charges a fee when you pass some threshold, like the fourth invoice. This is called the "freemium" business model."

Interesting name.

Come and join HKUST MBA Intake 2006 Group!

If you are one of the HKUST MBA Intake 2006 student, come and join us in the new Yahoo! Group that I setup for better communicate between all of us. Please help to spread the word about this group so we could build a better community!

Click to join hkust_mba_intake_2006

For Wii Owners, checkout Mii Plaza and WiiToob

Just stumble upon this Mii Plaza site. You could upload your Mii and your Wii code to meet new friends. Since my friend told me my Mii doesn't look like me enough, I think I will fix mine first before adding it to the site.

On a related note, the same site owner also created wiitoob.com, which is a pretty nice way to watch youtube video on your Wii. I like the AJAX interface.

To wife: Happy Valentine's Day

To wife,

Happy Valentine's Day. We have walked a long way. Thanks for everything.

Guys...Know Your Limits!

True story...

One company annual dinner...

Four drunk guys

One became a statue
One lost his mobile phone in taxi
One lost conscious and took 4 guys to move
One finally slept in the mall (too heavy to move!)
[Update: The last two guys were taken to hospital later, just in case. I am glad that they are OK]

Guys...know your limits!

The 6 Startup Lessons for the Year 2007

Finished reading the blog post called 6 Startup Lessons for the Year 2007. Generally speaking, it is advocating startup to focus on a niche instead of a large audience. It is because a niche usually has less competition and more royal customer.

The six lessons are:

• Divide and Conquer, Differentiate or Die
• Generally Speaking, the Smaller the Niche, the More Loyal the Users Become
• Focus
• No Small Market is Small Enough
• Mind Numbingly Simple
• Bubble Burps (Note: I think it is talking about creating a new market instead of following others)
  

These are not new ideas, but it is good to remind ourselves from time to time.

I love Wii and Mii

After months of waiting, I finally couldn't wait anymore and bought a US Version of Wii. Wii Sports is included and I also bought Zelda and Wario. Zelda is great! It certainly justified the higher price tag for an English version. I also like the brilliant idea of Mii. It is so much fun creating your own representation. Those who know me could tell me whether my Mii looks like me or not. :)

I also like the internet connectivity feature so I could send and receive email on my Wii. The Opera internet browser also works very well. To my surprise it is quite enjoyable surfing the net on TV. Overall, I love it!!

Hi! It's Mii! Joel!

My brain is more female??

Your Brain is 53% Female, 47% Male

Your brain is a healthy mix of male and female You are both sensitive and savvy Rational and reasonable, you tend to keep level headed But you also tend to wear your heart on your sleeve

What Gender Is Your Brain?

Apparently One of my friends got the same score as me too.

Free Business School Podcasts

I am a podcast listener. To me, I mostly listen to two kind of podcasts: Technology and Business. Here is a list of free podcasts from famous B. Schools. However, I still have difficulty to fully listen to them because sometimes business related talks are quite boring....

There is no HKUST business school podcast. But if you have time you could listen to a HKUST podcast called Campus Beat.

Nothing is Impossible!

Check this video about a two legs walking dog!! Amazing story!

Apple and US GAAP

Thanks to my MBA study, I could understand what this article is talking about! It is a breakthrough to me!

Check out my partial book collection.

I am testing out a web site called shelfari.com. It lets me put a list of books that I own and create a blog widget to display it. You could check out my partial collection on the right hand-side of this blog. Nevertheless, I just found out that I have purchased more books than I have time to read...

Very cool user interface face. Watch the video!

The iPhone Multi-touch technology is cool, but it is definitely not the first and the best. You should check out this blog post in Gizmodo, which talks about a touch sensitive panel developed by a New York University Scientist named Jeff Han.

If you don't have time to read the article, go straight to the video and you will be amazed. I am waiting for the next generation of user interface development that contains a flat panel with tactical feedback.

It is totally true....that being a sales engineer is not easy

If you have been an engineer all along and suddenly need to do sales work. It is totally true....that it takes time to adjust your thinking and the process is quite difficult. It is because the goal of an engineer is to get accurate result, whereas the goal of sales is to get the maximum amount of money.

What not to do during presentation

Presentation Zen has a nice write up about what happened during the Apple iPhone announcement. I was watching the keynote with my wife and my wife decided to walk away during the Mr. Sigman's (Cingular CEO) talk. It is a very good example of what not to do during a presentation. Given the high profile of an Apple announcement, did he just know he need to present in front of the WORLD 2 hours before?

I always like Steve's presentation, it is fun to watch him introducing new product. He is always full of energy and is one of the best hypnosist in the world. He keeps saying how cool, revolutionary, incredible, unique, amazing the product is. And at the end of the show you also believe in it.

Watch the Apple Keynote here. See for yourself.

A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods

This is a great tool when you need a quick reference on how to visualize information. When you mouse over the method name, a popup will show you an example of what it looks like. Very cool! Visit here for more information.

Running a Company without Managers?

Stumbled into a Blog post about a 20 people IT company with NO manager today. The company has a flat structure and each employee owns a part of the company. Whenever a decision needs to be made, everybody got involved and volunteered to do the work.

Quote from the blog:

The advantages of this model are:

• Ownership. Everyone is as involved as they want to be. No one is sulking because a decision was made over their head.
• Motivation. People are insanely motivated, because they’re a part of running the company - they don’t just work there.
• Implementing decisions. Because people are involved in making decisions, it becomes much easier to implement them. You don’t have to sell decisions to reluctant employees.

The disadvantages are:

• Time. Sometimes it takes time to arrive at a decision. This was never a problem for us, but if your business climate requires constant quick leadership decisions, this may not be the right model.
• Petty discussions. If you’re not careful, meetings can devolve into endless, petty talk about mindless minutiae. In this case it’s important to stop and delegate or to trust someone who cares to make a good decision.

This is certainly an interesting idea, but I don't think too many companies could be this democratic. After all, the % stake are different for each person. And the process certainly will have to be changed when the company grows bigger. Nevertheless, I really like the idea of self-motivation.

Materials on developing a good VC pitch

Although I don't need to pitch to any VC just yet, it doesn't hurt to learn how to develop a good business pitch. Guy Kawasaki, the famous blogger who started Garage Technology Venture, has proposed the 10-20-30 rule since his "The Art of Start" book. Now his partner, Bill Reichert, has written another post that talks about it even more.

I recommend everybody who are interested in starting business to view the following:

• The Art of Start Presentation Video (on YouTube)
• Another The Art of Start Presentation Video (Google Video, 40mins)
  
• The Blog post: The Entrepreneur's New Year's Resolution: "I Will Fix My Pitch"

A Must Buy for iPod and Phone user

MyBlu is a Bluetooth handfree + FM tuner + remote for iPod. This is a must buy for me because I am annoyed by the fact that I have to take out my Shure earphone every time I received a call. HKD$598 suggested retail price.

Controlling USB Missile Launcher with Wiimote!

A fun use of the Wiimote!

Cool Software: Unlocker

Have you ever tried to delete a file but unsuccessfully because the file was locked by some unknown process? Try this Windows software: Unlocker

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! What's your plan for this year?

See an interesting Happy New Year Image here. For Men only. hee hee.