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.