Feb

7

Thanks for the b’day wishes, and happy CNY!

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I usually keep a low profile for my birthdays, but this year I am really touched by how much I was reached out to today. The phone calls (local & international), the text messages/SMS (local & international), the emails, and the amazing flood of Facebook wall posts!

facebook-bday-flood

Whoa! Gee .. thanks folks, I am touched :) Here’s my theme song for today. Enjoy!

And oh. Happy Chinese New Year!

Jan

27

“Duh” warning label

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I just got a new pair of gloves today, after waiting by the lost & found bin at my ice hockey rink. I guess whoever took my gloves decided to keep it for themselves (bastards!). Anyway, I thought the warning label inside of gloves was … well, obvious. See for yourself (click for bigger):

Mission Fuel 60 Senior hockey gloves

What? Ice hockey is not a safe sport?! There’s actually a chance that I might get hurt? Who would have thought! :D

Dec

2

UPGRADING WORDPRESS!

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Im taking my blog offline for a little while for some backend maintenance and upgrade .. if this page looks messed up — it’s ok. Your life will go on.

Update: 6:09pm - Wow this upgrade process has sucked up more time than I thought. There are still some quirks that annoy me, but I will have to fix them later.

Nov

18

Quotes: Invention and execution

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One thing I feel most passionately about: love of invention will never die.”

–Karl Friedrich Benz

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back– Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.

–Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “Prelude at the Theatre,” 1983

Read more

Nov

13

Wallstrip

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I’ve been kinda busy lately, so this is just a short post. I watched Wallstrip when it first launched .. then sort of lost interest in it and stopped paying attention. Recently as I was cleaning up my RSS feeds (”delisting” the feeds got stale), I checked it again and it sure has been a lot more entertaining. Today’s report on TIF (that’s the ticker symbol for Tiffany & Company) was just flat out entertaining. I think this is as good as it gets for reporting on a company’s stock (of course I hope for better!).

I mean, they have really added value here by taking something as mundane as reporting on a company’s stock to a whole new level. I honestly don’t care about TIF’s stock but if they do another video like this, I would totally want to watch it. For the uninformed single bachelors like myself (hmm .. maybe there’s a reason for this), Tiffany & Company is a jewelry company whose goodies girls go nuts over. And they’re not cheap stuff.

But my readers, let’s not get carried over the shiny rocks. The real star here is Wallstrip :p I know it’s old news that this startup got acquired by CBS, but I’d say happy belated congratulations anyway.

Is the company’s product providing value to end users? Check!

From Kuala Lumpur to Brussels? Now I can TOTALLY relate to that ;)

Aug

27

Vint Cerf + Architect of the Matrix: Separated at birth?

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Unless you don’t have a TV and don’t watch movies, there’s no way you have not seen the movie, The Matrix. I was reading this article today on The Guardian, and noticed how closely Vint Cerf, a founding father of the Internet closely resembles the Architect in The Matrix Reloaded.

Oh what the irony. Vint created the Internet, and the Architect created the Matrix.

See for yourself!

Will the real Vint Cerf please stand up?

Aug

14

Don’t wish the ride was smoother and keep smiling

Filed Under business, career, failure, fear, passion, quotes, self improvement, things to remind myself, uncategorized, values | Leave a Comment

Corollary to the quote I posted yesterday, a Google search for that quote yielded this page with a priceless story and timeless advice:

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting a man who, despite a severe speech impediment, had become the top salesman at his company. It was such an unlikely story that I asked him how he’d done it. He joked, “with a lot of bruises and scars.” He went on to say, “Not surprisingly, the road was terribly tough for me. I was awful in the beginning — and it lit a fire under me. It made me work harder than everyone else. I resented it then, but I’ve come to realize it was a blessing in disguise.”

Consider this:

In life, it’s the rough patches that build your strength and character. They test you. They make you dig deeper, think harder, and risk more. Use them to your advantage. Don’t play the victim. Get up and get creative. It’s what you do when the going gets tough that defines you.

Try this:

When you hit a rough patch:
1. Don’t wish the ride was smoother - it’s not supposed to be.
2. Use the challenge to get smarter.
3. Tackle one thing at a time - don’t overwhelm yourself.
4. Keep smiling throughout.

Question: How have you used rough seas to your advantage?

Jul

19

Password protect zip files

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I don’t know why I never thought of doing this before, but a great way to get around GMail rejecting your file attachments is to password protect your zip file. GMail is actually smart enough to peek into your zip files and check its contents — provided you don’t password protect it, which most people don’t. Now don’t get me wrong, but that’s a great thing for most people. However, it’s just downright annoying to me when it rejects a file that I know is safe.

I discovered this by accident. I was browsing through some malicious code samples for research, and needed to get the sample from one machine to the other. So I just emailed the sample to my GMail account. It’s not uncommon for security researchers to share malcode samples among each other by means of zipping up the code and then password protecting it.

So imagine my delight when I saw this:

Why yes, dear GMail, I’m glad you cannot scan the file for viruses. Because it _is_ a virus :)

Maybe Google will roll out a security-researcher’s edition of GMail? Nah. Probably not.

Jul

19

Cool robot

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Cool robot. Real Transformers not too far away?

Thanks Digg.

Jul

11

Chair + helium balloons = cheapest flight ever

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This has got to be the coolest story I’ve read today — a guy flying with basically a lawn chair and lots of helium balloons. What’s even funnier — he got a ticket for violating the airspace laws.

Maybe someday, I’ll do just that. :D

Jul

1

I will always do the right thing (core value of mine)

Filed Under business, career, self improvement, things to remind myself, uncategorized, values | Leave a Comment

Recently, a good friend of mine commented to me about how someone (let’s call him Mr. X) that I used to work with and I disliked, isn’t so bad of a person as long as one did not work with him. My friend said that because I had a bad experience with Mr. X, I’m not his friend today, but for those who have never been a colleague of Mr. X, they would be his friends. The point my friend was trying to make was that this guy was not a jerk outside of work, only at work, and that I would be Mr. X’s friend if I had never known him at work.

My reply to that was that, assuming that I never worked with Mr. X before, and became his friend, if I at a later date found out what a jerk he was at work, I would be lesser of a friend. Eventually becoming a non-friend. I rarely part ways like that with friends, but it has happened before. Relationships are two way streets. Last year I parted ways with a friend (in a less than desirable term), because I was giving up too much, and the relationship was just too lop-sided. That was someone else, not Mr. X.

Back to Mr. X. Why would I not be his friend, if he was only a bad person at work, and he wasn’t doing anything bad to me?

The answer was simple, and I didn’t even have to think hard. The values Mr. X stand for, and the actions that he exhibit, are against my personal core values.

I have a set of core values, and core values to me, are a standard that I will hold myself to, NO MATTER WHAT. My core values are carefully selected, and I will continue to practice my core values, even if the world shuns them. That’s an important test. When you build your set of core values, remember that they must pass the “popularity test”. If something you do suddenly becomes unpopular, and you decide to no longer do it, then that’s not a good core value. A core value is immutable, so carefully pick them.

One of my core values is: Doing The Right Thing

If that sounds vague to you, then what about Google’s core value of “Do No Evil”? Anyway, this value of mine basically means that, given a particular situation that I am in that requires my action, I will act according to what I think is the right thing to do. And this is something I will do, even if means that I have to make an unpopular choice. This is my standard that I have set for myself, feel free to bookmark this blog post and hold me accountable to what I have just said, should I future forget, and make a decision that’s not right.

Back to Mr. X. In my opinion, he does a lot of things at work to other people, that are not the right thing to do. But it’s not exactly blatantly wrong either, so he continues with his behavior. But deep down inside of me, it’s not right by my books, and I’m glad I don’t work with Mr. X. anymore.

The great thing about bad experiences, is that you learn from them. Granted, I haven’t learned what to do from Mr. X, but I have learned what NOT to do. Lots of it. I’ll describe my thoughts of an ideal person that I strive to be, and the things that I don’t want to be (and strive NOT to do).

Authenticity, transparency, and consistency

I like people who are authentic. The reason why I rank backstabbers worse than serial killers, child rapists, etc. is because backstabbers do it behind your back, while pretending to be your friend. To me, this is kind of like the Sarin attacks on the Tokyo subway. Those poor victims never stood a chance. The Sarin liquid is colorless, tasteless and has no odor. If those bad guys had the balls, they should have used guns or something. If someone is to kill me, do it to my face. Don’t do it behind my back. You declare war on a country before attacking. You don’t attack before declaring war.

Anyway, Mr. X was not exactly a backstabber, but he was a two-face bastard (in my book, a two-face bastard is not a full-fledged backstabber, but is on the right track to becoming one). Mr. X’s relationship modus operandi at work could be summed up as: If you were higher ranking than him at work, or if he thinks that you could help him, or indirectly do something to help him, he would be nice to you. Maybe even kiss your ass. However, if you are lower ranking than him, or if he knows there’s no way you could help him, or indirectly help him, he treats you like a second-class citizen. He’s not outright rude or anything, but a tad dishonest, sometimes even doing something to prevent you from advancing faster than him.

If you’re going to be a dick, by all means be a dick to everyone. Be a dick to people who you know can’t ever help you, and also the people who you know can help you. If you’re going to be a nice person, then be nice to everyone. Be nice and kiss your boss’s ass if you must, but also be nice to those who you know cannot help you. In short, don’t be a two-face bastard. Be consistent.

Mr. X would sell you something he himself wouldn’t buy. I simply can’t trust Mr. X, even when gives me advice, because sometimes the advice he gives me, is really in his own interest, not so much for me. Sometimes the so-called advice for me, really has nothing in it for me. It’s kind of like when someone says to you, “Hey, would you like to wash my car? It’s a great work out, and you look like you need a tan.” But phrase that in such a way that it looks like it benefits the person washing the car, not the owner of the car. “Hey, seriously, if you don’t do as I advice you to do, it’s really just bad for you. You should do it for your own good.”

Please. I wasn’t born yesterday. How about you do it first, and I’ll do it after I see you do it?

Authenticity helps build trust. When we trust each other, we can move forward and get real work done. We don’t spend time second guessing each other for a hidden agenda. I was constantly second guessing Mr. X. I can’t describe what a pain it is, living such a life of having to constantly second guess the people around you. Just to contrast, my current VP of Security Research Dan Hubbard is an awesome guy — I don’t second guess what he says. He tells it like it is, no beating around the bush, no having to look for double meanings. The team moves forward faster, without distrust. How do you unify a team to tackle a challenge with each member not trusting each other, and looking out for themselves only? YOU CAN’T.

Helping others succeed

Mr. X played the corporate big company political game of “playing your cards close to the vest”. Matter of fact, he regularly stole my best cards to be played as his, and amazed everyone with his winning streak. He hoarded valuable information and disseminated them based on the importance of the recipient to him, arguably an unfair but effective method of gaining control. The only problem is, he couldn’t find any valuable information on his own, so the valuable information he disseminated to others, were basically cut-paste jobs from my emails I sent him. Oh, the cut-paste email job conveniently strips out all indications that it he got the information from someone else.

In my opinion, that era of information hording to be powerful in the corporate work place is over. Look at the Web 2.0 phenomenon. Everyone is sharing information. The person who shares the most to benefit society, is considered the more powerful. They help others succeed. The person perceived to be full of valuable information but could possibly be a phony, IS NOT AS VALUABLE as the person who can actually deliver some value to you. If I knew you need something to be successful, and if I could not personally deliver it to you for your success, but if I knew of someone who can, I would introduce you both. I will admit I can’t help you with my own two hands, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t help you by connecting you to someone I know who can.

Given the choice of being perceived as someone true but not, and actually being someone true, but not necessarily perceived as such — I would pick the latter. If you’re a fake, eventually people will find out.

Also, I rather help others by giving them the ability to help themselves, rather than to force them come to me every single time. This is the “teach a man how to fish” philosophy. I rather teach you how to fish, than you give you a fish. I’ll give you a fish if you want, but that’s only a short term immediate benefit, and not sustainable in the long run for either of us. To contrast this with Mr. X, he would give you a fish for today, because he knows you will have to come back to him tomorrow. And he will do his best to actively prevent you from learning how to fish on your own.

They say that the people around you rub off on you. If you surround yourself with successful people, you too, would be successful. If that is so, then if I make the people around me successful, I too would be successful. Mr. X saw it as a zero sum game (if you win, I lose; so if I see you moving faster than me, I will slow you down). I disagree with that.

I observed that it’s mostly the little people who try to display their rank and power. The people with rank and power already know they have it, and don’t waste time proving it to their rank-and-files. Mr. X was slightly above rank-and-file, but he definitely made it known to others about whatever little power he had. I guess he forgot to check his ego at home before coming to work today. Again. Mr. X would be much more successful if we were back in the WWII era.

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
– Mark Twain

To sum up, I knew about Mr. X’s two-face bastard attitude, my core values were mutually exclusive of his (some even conflicted), I could NOT operate autonomously, and our unfair lop-sided relationship resulted in my constant uncertainty and fear. He was impossible to read, was full of hidden agendas, and I had to constantly second guess him. That sealed the deal, my deal to resign, that is — and I left.

Hopefully I have not painted the picture that I am a saint — for I am not. I did have my naive moments, which I have since learned from. One of the great things about working with assholes, is that it builds character. I know that might sound cliche, but I speak for myself.

One of the reasons why I first started blogging, was to improve myself. I quickly found out that blogging provides transparency, as in, the internets will know what I’m about, and they can decide for themselves what they think of me (which I totally respect, good or bad). That reinforces that I need to be good, or else people would know that I’m actually bad, pretending to be good.

The other aspect I like about writing my blog, is that anybody reading my blog, can hold me accountable for what I say. Granted, I might sometimes write something when I’m half asleep, so that might not make much sense — but if you do the right thing, and judge me only by the well thought out articles that I really poured my full honest judgement into, .. then feel free to hold me accountable to what I say.

May

27

Can’t program because you are blind?

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I just read this story about Peter Lundblad, a programmer recently hired by Google. The reason why I’m featuring him on my blog is because Peter is blind. I’m blessed to have a pair of good eyes, and I couldn’t possibly imagine even typing an email, if I was blind.

From the article:

“I was trained as a finger typist. I know from the feel of the keys if I’ve made a mistake typing. When looking at code, I prefer Braille.” Lundblad uses a device that presents each line of code on the screen in Braille for him to read by touch.

“I was 13 years old in 1989 when I got my first computer. Then a few years later, the Internet came along. It was a revolution. I could search for whatever I wanted, instead of going to the library to see what books they had in Braille.

What a touching story, and as a technologist, the lesson to be learned here is that while most of us are fortunate and take many things in life for granted, we should always remember the Peter Lundblad’s of the world — and make our technology accessible for them too. How different would Peter’s life be, had the Internet not been accessible in Braille?

I am reminded of a quote I read in Entrepreneur yesterday,

People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who succeed are the people who look for the circumstances they want. And if they can’t find them, they make them.

– George Bernard Shaw

I admire his resilience in overcoming such a challenge, and hope I never forget that I cannot give up.

Apr

25

It’s just “stuff”, bitterness is really pointless

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I was reading this article on NYTimes about the difficulties of being rich. Yes, the rich too, have problems, albeit different kinds of problems from the not-rich.

Long story short, David Hayden, an entrepreneur, was screwed over once in his first company when someone blatantly broke their promise. Then, in his second company, the same person that backed out from the first deal before, reassured David that history wouldn’t repeat and said “If a problem ever comes up, I will fall on the sword for you”. The title of that article is “The Perils of Being Suddenly Rich”, so as you can probably guess, something did happen in David’s second company despite all that he was promised, and he got screwed over, yet again.

I must say, I admire David’s perspective on the bigger picture — a perspective I think is good for not just entrepreneurs, but anyone in general.

Despite a multimillion-dollar judgment against him by arbitrators, he remains philosophical. “It’s just stuff,” he says.

To pay bills, Mr. Hayden is gradually selling off furniture and paintings. Yet he appears to harbor surprisingly little bitterness. “It’s better that way in the end,” he said. “Otherwise you focus on stuff that doesn’t matter.”

And he is staying philosophical about his situation. “It’s just stuff, and it’s important to not let stuff get in the way of what’s important,” he said. “People, happiness, health, children, and putting money in the right places.”

Moral of the story:

  • Don’t let day-to-day problems run your life and deny you happiness (It’s just stuff)
  • Don’t let day-to-day problems slowly divert you from your goal/direction in life (You focus on stuff that doesn’t matter)
  • Don’t let day-to-day problems make you forget what’s important (People, happiness, health, children, and putting money in the right places) *

* a.k.a. if you got loads of money, invest in something that will help change the world for the better by helping others

Last but not least, get used to people in the money business screwing you over despite all the swear-on-my-mother’s-grave promises. They’re just money-faced, nothing personal.

You take care of that stuff, David. You tell ‘em.

Apr

8

Happy Easter ‘07

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My aunt called me today to exchange greetings and mentioned something about how it appears that all we do when our families get together is eat. A lot. The lunch/dinner is usually spread out over at least 4 hours, combined with a lot of chatter and storytelling. My reply to her was that it’s not so bad, because the central theme is not actually the food, but the catching-up with each other. Eating is just secondary e.g. something to do, while catching up. The relationship is the central theme.

Isn’t it funny how sometimes when you think of someone and wonder if they are thinking of you — and that that very same moment, they are thinking of you, wondering if you are thinking of them.

On this very day, as I was driving to an Easter lunch party at a friend’s, I was thinking about where my college dorm suite-mate Brant Phillips would be today, if he was still around. He always joked about studying so damn hard, just to work at Wal-Mart (he was in pharmacology, he was going to be a pharmacist at Wally’s World). Til today, I’ve always been puzzled and amazed by how we could both be the best of friends — considering that I’m a techie who knows zero about anything chemistry/biology, and how Brant in pharmacology with zero knowledge in my nerdy stuff, could hit it off so well.

Anyway, I’ve regretted plenty of times on numerous occasions for not saying something when I should have, until it’s too late, so I’m going to spill my guts right here, right now. Yes, this is my fucking blog.

Brant, I miss you, and you’ll always my brother no matter what. I think of you always when I hear this song. Happy Easter, Philly.

Feb

7

I’ve hit the big two-five!

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Hurray, I’m finally 25 today. Things to be thankful for:

  1. Significant drop in my car insurance rate
  2. No longer have to pay the damned “underage driver” fee when renting a car

Wow it pays to be a full-fledged adult. Before I was 21, being 21 was the large milestone because that means you can legally buy alcohol. After 21, it’s 25. Now that I’m 25 … I guess I should look out for my mid-life crisis soon? :p

Thanks for the best wishes.

Dec

25

Merry Christmas!

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Merry Christmas, to all my readers. Looks like I didn’t make Santa’s list this year. But it’s still an improvement from last year. (I got a lump of coal last year)

Dec

20

Cartoon: How software is really made

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Funny picture description of how software is really made in a bloated big corp. Thanks Carny.

Dec

13

Funny video

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Amateurish video — but it still tickles :) Got 5:02 minutes to kill?

Read about this video from the NYTimes.

Nov

15

Disabled comments for now

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* 11/19/2006 update: Comments re-opened

I checked my comment moderation queue, and I have 420 spam comments waiting for me.

Yes, I could surely use a loan/mortgage, car insurance, and porn — but no thanks.

I’m hoping that the spam bots will notice that this blog is unspammable and quit. Odds of that are low, but I’ll try and see what happens. Later, I’ll bring back comments with some anti-spam measure. Perhaps CAPTCHA.

Damn spambots!

Nov

7

Fast bike vs. fast car benchmark

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Fast car and fast bikes, what more can a guy ask for :)

Lamborghini Gallardo vs. Ducati 999. 3:02 minute clip. See who wins the race!

Thanks Carny.

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