巴士阿叔的事後感

這數天不停地聽到巴士阿叔的金句。其實這件應該令我們明白兩件事。

1. 香港人(或中國人)吵架到將會打架也沒有人會出聲, 聽說在外國有一個國家(好像是英國)有一條法律說人們如果看見罪行發生而不去幫忙, 政府有權告你的。
2. 人們在外的一舉一動也會被人看到, 或許這件事會令香港變成一個懂以禮待人的城市呢!

VS.NET 2005, C# and Resharper

I have been using IntelliJ IDEA for a long time and I am a big fan of it. I am playing with VisualStudio 2005 and C# today and found out that it is really a big pain to switch IDE. I than goto the JetBrains website and download their VS.NET Add-in product called ReSharper. I am very happy to find out that most of the IDEA keyboard shortcut are there! I could use "outv" instead of "soutv" to do a println again! And being able to CTRL-click a method name again makes me very happy. Suddenly, life is good again!

Stupid professor and a disgrace to Chinese and UT Austin!

From this news:

"Professor Chen had created the original Hanxin chips simply by grinding away the top surface of some of Motorola's Freescale DSP chips with sandpaper and having them reprinted with the Hanxin logo.... Professor Chen, a 38 year-old who earned his doctorate at the University of Texas at Austin..."

What was this professer thinking?! Did he get a PhD of stupidity and criminality? I also graduated from UT Austin and I still cannot imagine why he could do such a thing that disgrace the Chinese, the univeristy, and all of its alumini!

Regarding Da Vinci Code...

From my friend's blog about the Da Vinci Code Movie and the Vatican:

"Most people do understand the fact that this is a fictional tale written by a comtemporary author and that this film is a commerical artifact produced by Hollywood...A true faith will stand against the strongest temptation from the devil, let alone a blockbuster hit created by Sony Pictures... "

I agree, it is really no big deal. It is what people believe that matters. It is a noval and movie, not documentary!

Is it really such a big deal that Forrest Gump shaked hand with the president in a movie? People should be intelligent enough to think by themselves.

A lot of people actually supports the church of FSM! Ha ha.

Nintendo Old School Business Card Holder

I actually have this fun business card holder shown here. Haven't actually have the chance to use it yet as it doesn't seems to be appropriate in some of my client meeting situation.

Currently Reading: The Business of Software

I am currently reading this book called "The Business of Software". I wish I have discovered it earlier since it certainly makes me understand the software business more. Especially when I got a change to work in different type of software business company: both pure product and consulting.

I only read a couple chapters, but basically it is saying that an hybrid company (doing both product and services) will have a better chance of survival long-term.

Deep down in my heart I like product company more than a pure service company. Anyway, still reading it, so far so good.

Oh My God! PS3 costs USD$600!

I am sure I won't get a PS3 anytime soon. The fact that it costs $599 and the copying of the Wii functionality in its controller makes it a big turn off to me. I think I will buy it only when the price comes down, or when Metal Gear Solid 4 comes out.

I am saving my money for Nintendo Wii. Looking forward to see its E3 press conference tomorrow.

IE "Whee..."

This is so funny! Beside Nintendo "Wii" (Wee), there is also IE "Whee"...

Click the following icon to watch.

Nintendo Wii?!

The Nintendo console that I am waiting for, previous called "Revolution", just got a new name "Wii" (sounds like "we"). For more information, visit the nintendo site.

I don't understand why people start to name everything with "ii". Intel got "Viiv" and now we have "Wii". It just confusion people a lot. I finally understand their reasoning of it after reading the description. However, shouldn't they name the system so people know what it means immediately, without a long explaination??

Nevertheless, I am going to get the system when it comes out. I will get used to the strange name soon.

My Final MBA School Decision

I am going to accept the offer from HKUST for the Dual-Degree program. Going to different interviews was an interesting experience.

I really want to thank everyone who support me during this application period. Thanks my mom, my brother, my best friend Pazu. Thanks Jim and Howan for their help in writing the reference letter. Also thanks Chris, Lewis and other colleagues for supporting my decision as well. And special thanks to my wife, who gave her 110% support and encouragement to me in my quest for MBA study.

Three years of hard work(or, challenges :> ) is coming....

HKUST Offer!

Finally an answer from HKUST! And it is a very good news!!

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Joel

Greetings from XXXXX taking care of admissions from HKUST MBA
program. Thank you for joining us for the interview,
On behalf of our admissions committee, I am most pleased to
inform you that you are admitted to our part-time
Dual Degree MBA & MScISM program starting August 2006.

As per our schedule, we shall send out the admissions offer package to
you in April 2006. If you accept the admission offer, you are requested
to return the signed acceptance of offer with a deposit of HK$XX,XXX
to us.

The program fees for August 2006 intake is proposed to be around
HKDXXX,XXX for completing the part-time MBA & MScISM program. The proposed
fee is subject to university's approval. You will find more detailed
information from the admissions package.

Congratulations! We are glad to have you joining us! In the meantime if
you have any questions or anything I could help, please let me know.

I look forward to seeing you in coming summer!

Thanks and Regards

MBA Program Office
HKUST Business School
The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
Clear Water Bay, Kowloon
-------------------------------------------------------------------

7pm and no reply....

Still no reply from HKUST....

CUHK....I am coming soon la.....!!

ok HKUST...I will give you half more day tmr.

HKUST interview session.

Went to HKUST for the first time yesterday. I heard that the whole school has wifi coverage so I started up my notebook to give it a try. Unfortunately, it asks for username and password as it is for the school student only. Bummer....

Interestingly, one of the feeling I got when I reached the campus is that it reminds me of University of Macau. Yes, I know they are totally different, but there is a view that just looks familiar to me....the red circle area is the library and there is a big opening in the middle that I could look outside. And I haven't been to UofM for, I believe, more than ten years lu.


So what about the interview? It is a face-to-face interview, no group discussion. Two ladies interviewed me for about a little bit more than 30 minutes. It asked some questions about my current position, my plan, etc. They also asked some difficult questions, like "We already have a lot of IT applicants, why do we need to take another one?". I could come up with many good answers to this question now, but at that time, my brain went dead for a second. I think I showed them my motivation and I am committed to the study. However, I don't think I got a really high mark that they will take me immediately. Afterall, they will think that "he already got the CU offer, it doesn't hurt him if we reject him".

I am glad that I could at least have a chance to talk to them. It lets me re-evaluate my more after the interview.

Let's see whether I will hear anything from them today. Otherwise, I will have to act quickly and complete the CU registration (and pay them immediately :< )

Sir/Madam....you need to take a rest...

Due to my eye condition, my wife is asking me to install software that could force me to take a break from the computer and rest my eyes and my arms.

There are many softwares that does this, and I love this FREE one called Workwave. Basically, it will lock your keyboard and mouse from time to time to force you to take a rest.

Install it! Try it and save your eyes/body. Sorry, no Mac Version yet.

About "How to create the $1,000,000 software idea"

Just saw this post here about how to create the $1,000,000 software ideas. Most of them are good but the rule about dropping the idea if it costs less than $99 is arguable. The one who did WinZip must have made millions. If there is a need and the user base is large enough, I believe it should be ok.

I am searching for my own $1,000,000 software idea too. Any cool ideas?

Thanks for your comments!

I really want to thanks everyone who gave me advice and comment in my search for the right MBA school.

T H A N K S   A   M I L L I O N !!!

HKUST interview date and time set

April 19th 12p. Will let you guys know what happened later.

HKUST Interview soon...

I am happy to recieve a call from HKUST for an interview scheduled on April 19th. However, the company is going to have a presentation for a client on that day and my boss is asking me to change the schedule. Hopefully it will work out ok because I really want to go to UST. CU is good, but it lacks any good IT course. It is focusing on finance and marketing a lot more than IT. Although I am already working in this industry, I don't want to advance my study on this area more.

This good news also leads to a headache. CUHK's deadline is April 21th and it is saying that if I don't pay the non-refundable money on that day, it will withdraw the admission.

Headache!!! I should have applied UST in the 2nd batch. Now I am facing this uncentainty. :(

Suggestion anyone???

CUHK Offer!

Got the following email from CUHK today!

------

Dear Mr. Yen,

Congratulations! I am pleased to inform you that you are offered admission to Weekend MBA Programme in the academic year of 2006-07.

We will send you the official acceptance pack in due course. If you wish to accept this offer of admission, kindly pay the fees of HKDXXXXX by April 21, 2006. Please also follow the procedures stipulated in the acceptance pack. The Pre-term course is scheduled to begin on Friday, August 11, 2006.

------

I should have applied HKUST earlier. I still haven't received any interview information from it yet. Because of the CUHK offer, I will turn down HKU offer. I like HKU, but everybody I talked to said that its MBA program is not as good as CU and UST.

All of those schools keep asking people to put money in their account in April. Isn't it a bit early for a class that will not started until August. I believe it is their technique to lock you in.

HKUST....when will you give me your reply?

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