Tuesday, February 23, 2010
the world aint all sunshine and rainbows....
Background: Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) is a retired boxer in Philadelphia. He's going to take part in an exhibition fight current world champion after an ESPN program ran a simulation of then and now - declaring that Rocky would win.
opiniated individuals ... and dare you throw money into the sea?
This blog says that the problem is that many times people that do have strong opinions refrain from expressing them because they are afraid of what other people might think.
Clearly, Chewy does not belong to this category. And he sure can back them up. And even better, he's open to opposing opinions. I think that's a really cool trait to have. There are many things you can be impressed about with regards to Chewy, his confidence, his witty humour, his willingness to get his hands dirty, his humility. Little surprise that he's pretty high-flying for 32 year old :)
A side-thought before I continue in topic: Yea, US may be pretty screwed up. However, all things equal, you'll be hard-pressed not to find distinct differences when looking at how people educated there carry themselves compared to Singapore. Sure, I may generalise and maybe I just haven't seen enough people yet, but based on my personal experience (2 US educateed God-sisters, 2 close pals in US), I have always been pro-US Education system (well, of course if you can afford it). What do you think?
sgFail...or not?
I shamelessly quote from Reuben in our MSN convo "im qt surprised google makes 100mil in sg. 100mil is no joke at all, no matter what industry". I mean sure, I've always kinda knew that search is a big thing. in some ways, chewy really smashed away the myth that there's no market in singapore. its even more interesting that he feels that the consumer culture in singapore is screwed up. personally, i'm more inclined towards his view points. i think in sg, your power as a consumer is really bad. like ryan said, the culture is one of the main reasons for this scenario. then begs the question, is it REALLY possible for the scales to be tipped? too often, we have tried brave souls try and fail. what is the problem?
i think its a matter of our mentality towards failure vs comfort zone: generally sgeans are more comfortable to stay in a bao-jia situation. if it aint broken, why fix it? why make your own life so hard? and i blame the education system. students flock to the ivle to post stuff. they say the stupidest thing in classroms for participation. why? becos we're damn kiasu and kiasi. this psyche can not be better illustrated then looking at your google reader/rss reader for the past 2 days, after sadistic prof welcomed us back to the real world.
and it really does works! i had this discussion last sem, and i really think the education system in sg really not helping this culture
that said, i realy can't (in the forseeable future) see consumers grabbing the power back in sg.
throwing ideas against the wall .... and money into the drain
branching off from the previous point, i believe this concept is totally unorthodox to most sgeans. with no offence towards those who expressed doubts against the CPA, i often find sgeans (myself included) quick to find fault or failure. but like the second segment of chewy's talk on our tinted glasses, we often think that we're able to see from other people's point of view, but more often than not, we're still fixated on our own viewpoints, which we developed based on our experience. we're really not as smart and knowledgeable as we think we are... well, i don't at least.
which is not a bad thing. but perhaps, its time to look at throwing money into the drain .... even though we might not own a palace in indonesia
here's to a wonderful 2 weeks of deadlines and tests ahead!
(ps does this make me a fan again? :) )
Friday, February 19, 2010
help us help you....
interestingly, my facebook assignment group's very first idea was very similar to getHelp. of course, looking at our final product, you can probably guess that we were not too favorable on it.
one thing i learnt from 2 of my best friends is.... 2 of the best people around don't necessarily make the best couple. in some ways, i think this application tries to put together too many "greats", and possibly turned out not too great. i don't like to fixate myself on 4 points, so i'll do a general sweep on various aspects of the app.
idea
on the first look, it seems like a great idea. having a one stop location where you can get help and give help. "i need help with ..." is so open-ended and it gives freedom. harnessing the power of the social network + great idea = success! right? wrong.
i think the biggest flaw with the idea is that its a little too open-ended. there is no focus. case-in-point, stack overflow was launched at the end of the year that this project was done. it only focused on programming. did it need the social network? no. is it successful? probably yes. with 135,000 users today, i'd say its pretty successful. getHelp is essentially a bloated up version of this, where you can ask for help from everybody and anybody.
but don't get me wrong, i'm not against thinking big. i just think that its better to start small. look at google, did they start by trying to conquer the whole world? sure, they probably had big dreams, but they focused on their search engine which we all can't live without today before branching out to compete with other big guns.
why do i talk about the idea even though we really are suppose to be talking about execution? i think that a group's idea, or more accurately their mindset when they are coming up with this idea, affects their entire mindset during the whole project - including creation of user interface, features etc.
interface 1: looks
As I've mentioned several times, I'm a believer of simplicity. It brings about a certain sense of elegance in design, and intuitiveness for users. Eye tracking studies have shown that the average user doesnt read text thoroughly. Thus, blocks of text to explain how to use interface is really not going to cut it.
I think the creaters of getHelp did have some sense of this idea, unfortunately, somehow or rather I think the final product still looks a little too cluttered. or rather, important information can't really be differentiated from the rest. this could be attributed to the the colour scheme. grey should not be used for the text, its hard to see when compared with all the bright colours all around them. the tabs are a little hard to see as well. why use 2 types of tabs? when you look at the project page, its a big case of TMI: too much information.
theme
Although the theme of a fireman, fire starter is cute, but the red buttons contrast too starkly against the default facebook color theme. Moreover, the theme of fire is hardly used in the application. Fire breathers take away the "negative" connotation of someone requiring too much help
I think a theme is good to capture certain audience groups. However, it is important to keep the theme and follow the theme, otherwise it feels a little lame.
Also, I think there is a lack of consistency between the images. Some are cutesy while others are serious/professional. It gives the feel of an identity crisis.
i think its a real big waste. perhaps they ran out of time, or they had too many other issues to resolve, or they came up with this theme half-way through, either way, I think if they had used the theme properly, they would have made their app much more interactive and engaging, whether they wanted to take a professional OR cute approach (only can chose 1)
interface 2: feel
whats the point of looking good if everything is rotten inside? the other (more) important part of interface is user interactions. based on the screenshots, i think generally everything can be done easily, and these actions seem to be mostly self-explanatory.
need quick help? : is it a different version of help compared to the normal one we have? what's the difference between dateline and estimated time?
what will be posted to my SMS & twitter & feed? how is all these information going to work? will there be a preview screen?
for the purpose of the app, I think it lacks very important OVERALL figures that should be present throughout the whole app (requests answered, request unanswered etc etc). The demand for a plug-in as simple as a G-Mail unread indicator should able to tell us how important most users find this feature.
feature set & implementation
the app has no short of features, it allows you to posts to other places, allow you to go for achievements, allow you to recommend. however, i think more thought could have been put into these features. the general feel i get is very "kiasu"-ish, where they just wanted to include everything.
firstly, the "karma system" ineeds a lot of thought in it. how much reward to attract helpers? how to determine who are real "experts"? one badge and a simple ranking board probably isn't enough. one of the driving force in forums is your "rank". hand in hand with ranks, is the karma system. when you help others, you gain karma. this is a cyclical process, and the alturistic nature of mankind will help drive the forums. in many sense, this app is a forum. you need a multi-tiered achievement system, to drive users to come back.
furthermore, some of the the categories are just not useful. why is there a need to track the top firemakers? how is "hottest" project important? (what is hottest project for that matter) it just add most unnecessary clutter to the application.
the wide buffet of methods to "spam" simply turns me off. not only will you spam on one platform, you will spam on multiple platforms. i believe kiasu helpees will just check all options, and helpers will just get annoyed and leave the application. its good that they thought of giving choice, but choice could possibly come back to bite them. i would personally only choose to implement it on 1 at most 2 channels.
there also seems to be a gap in the "viral"-ness of the app. recall that this app was created in a time where massively large amounts of apps were being added day after day. people were already starting to ignore apps. although getHelp is great for... well getting help, i don't think its the best way for giving help. after all, once your status is set, I don't have to use the app to contact you on the necessary information. i won't even find out about the great karma system behind the app. i dont think a helpee has incentive to want to become the greatest firestarter....
then it brings out a final issue: why cant I just post what i want.... directly where i want it?
my verdict? i think getHelp is a great spamming machine for helpees which is likely to get abused, preventing helpers to want to add the app. i think they tried to do too many things, and with a bad idea to boot, they just slogged it through in the end.
social network is a great resource, but not necessarily a good resource for everything. if however, they had (at that point in time) aimed for a primitive facebook connect, i think it would have been a much better idea.
one thing i learnt from 2 of my best friends is.... 2 of the best people around don't necessarily make the best couple. in some ways, i think this application tries to put together too many "greats", and possibly turned out not too great. i don't like to fixate myself on 4 points, so i'll do a general sweep on various aspects of the app.
idea
on the first look, it seems like a great idea. having a one stop location where you can get help and give help. "i need help with ..." is so open-ended and it gives freedom. harnessing the power of the social network + great idea = success! right? wrong.
i think the biggest flaw with the idea is that its a little too open-ended. there is no focus. case-in-point, stack overflow was launched at the end of the year that this project was done. it only focused on programming. did it need the social network? no. is it successful? probably yes. with 135,000 users today, i'd say its pretty successful. getHelp is essentially a bloated up version of this, where you can ask for help from everybody and anybody.
but don't get me wrong, i'm not against thinking big. i just think that its better to start small. look at google, did they start by trying to conquer the whole world? sure, they probably had big dreams, but they focused on their search engine which we all can't live without today before branching out to compete with other big guns.
why do i talk about the idea even though we really are suppose to be talking about execution? i think that a group's idea, or more accurately their mindset when they are coming up with this idea, affects their entire mindset during the whole project - including creation of user interface, features etc.
interface 1: looks
As I've mentioned several times, I'm a believer of simplicity. It brings about a certain sense of elegance in design, and intuitiveness for users. Eye tracking studies have shown that the average user doesnt read text thoroughly. Thus, blocks of text to explain how to use interface is really not going to cut it.
I think the creaters of getHelp did have some sense of this idea, unfortunately, somehow or rather I think the final product still looks a little too cluttered. or rather, important information can't really be differentiated from the rest. this could be attributed to the the colour scheme. grey should not be used for the text, its hard to see when compared with all the bright colours all around them. the tabs are a little hard to see as well. why use 2 types of tabs? when you look at the project page, its a big case of TMI: too much information.
theme
Although the theme of a fireman, fire starter is cute, but the red buttons contrast too starkly against the default facebook color theme. Moreover, the theme of fire is hardly used in the application. Fire breathers take away the "negative" connotation of someone requiring too much help
I think a theme is good to capture certain audience groups. However, it is important to keep the theme and follow the theme, otherwise it feels a little lame.
Also, I think there is a lack of consistency between the images. Some are cutesy while others are serious/professional. It gives the feel of an identity crisis.
i think its a real big waste. perhaps they ran out of time, or they had too many other issues to resolve, or they came up with this theme half-way through, either way, I think if they had used the theme properly, they would have made their app much more interactive and engaging, whether they wanted to take a professional OR cute approach (only can chose 1)
interface 2: feel
whats the point of looking good if everything is rotten inside? the other (more) important part of interface is user interactions. based on the screenshots, i think generally everything can be done easily, and these actions seem to be mostly self-explanatory.
need quick help? : is it a different version of help compared to the normal one we have? what's the difference between dateline and estimated time?
what will be posted to my SMS & twitter & feed? how is all these information going to work? will there be a preview screen?
for the purpose of the app, I think it lacks very important OVERALL figures that should be present throughout the whole app (requests answered, request unanswered etc etc). The demand for a plug-in as simple as a G-Mail unread indicator should able to tell us how important most users find this feature.
feature set & implementation
the app has no short of features, it allows you to posts to other places, allow you to go for achievements, allow you to recommend. however, i think more thought could have been put into these features. the general feel i get is very "kiasu"-ish, where they just wanted to include everything.
firstly, the "karma system" ineeds a lot of thought in it. how much reward to attract helpers? how to determine who are real "experts"? one badge and a simple ranking board probably isn't enough. one of the driving force in forums is your "rank". hand in hand with ranks, is the karma system. when you help others, you gain karma. this is a cyclical process, and the alturistic nature of mankind will help drive the forums. in many sense, this app is a forum. you need a multi-tiered achievement system, to drive users to come back.
furthermore, some of the the categories are just not useful. why is there a need to track the top firemakers? how is "hottest" project important? (what is hottest project for that matter) it just add most unnecessary clutter to the application.
the wide buffet of methods to "spam" simply turns me off. not only will you spam on one platform, you will spam on multiple platforms. i believe kiasu helpees will just check all options, and helpers will just get annoyed and leave the application. its good that they thought of giving choice, but choice could possibly come back to bite them. i would personally only choose to implement it on 1 at most 2 channels.
there also seems to be a gap in the "viral"-ness of the app. recall that this app was created in a time where massively large amounts of apps were being added day after day. people were already starting to ignore apps. although getHelp is great for... well getting help, i don't think its the best way for giving help. after all, once your status is set, I don't have to use the app to contact you on the necessary information. i won't even find out about the great karma system behind the app. i dont think a helpee has incentive to want to become the greatest firestarter....
then it brings out a final issue: why cant I just post what i want.... directly where i want it?
my verdict? i think getHelp is a great spamming machine for helpees which is likely to get abused, preventing helpers to want to add the app. i think they tried to do too many things, and with a bad idea to boot, they just slogged it through in the end.
social network is a great resource, but not necessarily a good resource for everything. if however, they had (at that point in time) aimed for a primitive facebook connect, i think it would have been a much better idea.
Monday, February 15, 2010
pigeon impossible
Check out Pigeon Impossible if you haven't already. the video's great, but the interviews, blog posts and pod casts are all awesome stuff as well. I first watched it embedded (on prof ben's facebook, heh), so I didn't check out the guy's website.
Success formula #1
learning by doing + learning by failing + importance of basics
Success formula #2
9 hours X 5 days * 52 weeks * 5 years = 11700hrs
(assumes 5 day working week with 8-5 working hours, which is probably an underestimate)
Happy Chinese New Year all!
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
best pitch in my book
it may not have been the most prestigious option to be working on for your final project, but the pitch that left the greatest impression on me was given by This Man.
how many times have you heard that "there is no future in (insert field) in singapore"? i had my fair share from my father. in fact, he was so adamant on his point that he almost forcefully tried to withdraw me from my CCA, with bad results as an excuse. thankfully, i had wonderful teachers who knew much better.
so why redsport? although i'm not to keen to pursue it as a final project, i cannot help but be amazed by the passion that emitted from the guy. with a no frills presentation, he highlighted just how much of a difference redsports made. kudos to yanjie for trying to contextualize this for many of our foreign classmates, but as a sportsman and assistant coach myself, i knew the value of redsport to the local sports scene.
i was still in school about the time redsport started, and it got more popular when i was helping my coach. before redsport, there was no consolidation of local school sports results and reports. several sites had tried to do the same thing as redsport, but their execution failed and eventually they faded into the depths. redsport is the only site that had withstood the test of time.
Mr leslie focused on what he was good at, which was basically to bring the sports story to us. and most importantly he stayed true to his passion. I quote:
I’m not sure I can comment about that but for me, I’m driven by the need to do something meaningful for society. Telling the sports story of my fellow Singaporean makes this website worth doing for me. Without meaning, I can’t get excited about the work I do. Of course, starting is the easy part. Now is the other struggle – persevering, focusing on the next step. The other thing that works for me is just keeping things simple and executing well. There are a thousand and one ideas out there but executing well and repeatedly is the hard thing to do.
70k (was this the number? i can't remember) daily hits may not seemed much for a page, but if you think about the community who is actually bothered about local sport, its actually quite a huge number. its one thing to follow your dreams blindly, its another thing to follow your dreams and successfully make a difference. and can you say tell a 13 year old that redsport doesnt really make a difference in the grand scheme of things? of course you can't, to them, this is their grand scheme of things. how could then say that redsport is not a success?
and if all the bolded phrases sound familiar, its because they are. these few catch phrases have been repeated again and again throughout this module, whether its by prof ben, or other successful people have said.
i look forward to hearing and learning more from him in the next session we see him.
how many times have you heard that "there is no future in (insert field) in singapore"? i had my fair share from my father. in fact, he was so adamant on his point that he almost forcefully tried to withdraw me from my CCA, with bad results as an excuse. thankfully, i had wonderful teachers who knew much better.
so why redsport? although i'm not to keen to pursue it as a final project, i cannot help but be amazed by the passion that emitted from the guy. with a no frills presentation, he highlighted just how much of a difference redsports made. kudos to yanjie for trying to contextualize this for many of our foreign classmates, but as a sportsman and assistant coach myself, i knew the value of redsport to the local sports scene.
i was still in school about the time redsport started, and it got more popular when i was helping my coach. before redsport, there was no consolidation of local school sports results and reports. several sites had tried to do the same thing as redsport, but their execution failed and eventually they faded into the depths. redsport is the only site that had withstood the test of time.
Mr leslie focused on what he was good at, which was basically to bring the sports story to us. and most importantly he stayed true to his passion. I quote:
I’m not sure I can comment about that but for me, I’m driven by the need to do something meaningful for society. Telling the sports story of my fellow Singaporean makes this website worth doing for me. Without meaning, I can’t get excited about the work I do. Of course, starting is the easy part. Now is the other struggle – persevering, focusing on the next step. The other thing that works for me is just keeping things simple and executing well. There are a thousand and one ideas out there but executing well and repeatedly is the hard thing to do.
70k (was this the number? i can't remember) daily hits may not seemed much for a page, but if you think about the community who is actually bothered about local sport, its actually quite a huge number. its one thing to follow your dreams blindly, its another thing to follow your dreams and successfully make a difference. and can you say tell a 13 year old that redsport doesnt really make a difference in the grand scheme of things? of course you can't, to them, this is their grand scheme of things. how could then say that redsport is not a success?
and if all the bolded phrases sound familiar, its because they are. these few catch phrases have been repeated again and again throughout this module, whether its by prof ben, or other successful people have said.
i look forward to hearing and learning more from him in the next session we see him.
Friday, February 5, 2010
the 62 comment lesson
well, thank you all for your support for my previous post. don't expect anymore exciting flame wars like that anymore :P i'm normally a very peace-loving, low profile guy. (its true.... though i doubt most of you would believe me) i hope nobody took any offense from the whole episode, and i apologise for any grief caused.
anyway, i think there were quite a few things i learnt from the whole episode.
1. (i think) generating interest isn't very hard compared to sustaining interest. the latter is the recipe for success in this fast pace, tightly knit web 2.0. the former normally fades into darkness due to the lack of real substance(aka me). there are definitely exceptions, but frankly I don't think such people make any contribution what-so-ever to this planet.
so i think the biggest challenge lies in turning attention into opportunity and value.
2. watch your words on the web. because of the lack of tone, context and familiarity, your words can be easily misinterpreted. again, this by no means is something new, but i think nothing drives home the message clearer than making the mistake yourself.
3. (i feel) its pointless getting into a fight online. there are no winners. i think people who have frequented forums will definitely agree with me. even though you may be right, bowing out really might not be the worse thing. there are jackasses (like me) who just want to start a fight for the sake of starting a fight. just let them be.
or, if you're bored, you could always just entertain them.
4. prof ben is cool. seriously, find me another prof that would praise you for starting a flame war?
anyway, i think there were quite a few things i learnt from the whole episode.
1. (i think) generating interest isn't very hard compared to sustaining interest. the latter is the recipe for success in this fast pace, tightly knit web 2.0. the former normally fades into darkness due to the lack of real substance(aka me). there are definitely exceptions, but frankly I don't think such people make any contribution what-so-ever to this planet.
so i think the biggest challenge lies in turning attention into opportunity and value.
2. watch your words on the web. because of the lack of tone, context and familiarity, your words can be easily misinterpreted. again, this by no means is something new, but i think nothing drives home the message clearer than making the mistake yourself.
3. (i feel) its pointless getting into a fight online. there are no winners. i think people who have frequented forums will definitely agree with me. even though you may be right, bowing out really might not be the worse thing. there are jackasses (like me) who just want to start a fight for the sake of starting a fight. just let them be.
or, if you're bored, you could always just entertain them.
4. prof ben is cool. seriously, find me another prof that would praise you for starting a flame war?
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
an utter waste of time...
(note: the title refers to the app, not the presentation)
10 things I want to say about Fame League...
10 things I want to say about Fame League...
1) It is in no way fun at all.
2) The first time I tried to play it, I left within a minute because of the annoying music.
3) It spams your friends when you add the game WITHOUT informing you before hand.
4) Even though it runs you through a tutorial.... I have no idea how to play the game
5) Is it even really a facebook app? It uses a iFrame to a website which is independent of facebook.
6) There are too many options and functions.
7) The UI is extremely unintuitive.
8) Important information like time left before market closes is hard to see.
9) Many stock market concepts are poorly introduced, especially to first timers.
10) I've already deleted the game.
I really think fame league is a poorly executed idea, in true Singaporean fashion. I'm wondering what their revenue model is like, and I'm actually very surprised to know that it even managed 27000+ monthly users. It may be a GREAT game, but I'm never going to find out, because the start of the game has already turn me off. Superficial as I am, I believe all casual gamers out there are the same.
More talk on UI. To begin with, why make a complicated UI and have a tutorial? The best facebook games can be played without looking at the help or tutorial, because its extremely intuitive. To casual gamers, UI is extremely important. I'm assuming the target is casual gamers, otherwise it really wouldn't make sense to infiltrate the facebook market with this application. I think the irony is a lot of games is that they make it very complicated, then they try to teach you how to use it.
Look at bejeweled blitz. In its early days, the game used a 760X600 (canvas size) screen divided into 4 to explain how to play the game, and that was ALL the help consisted of. It was simple and it worked (damn well at that). After 2 years of introduction, they have been careful in adding in small features which don't make your life harder. Its still just as fun today.
FAME league really needs to change its initial learning curve to attract more people. If it has spammed all 27000 users friends, I wouldn't be surprised that at least 20 million users has seen Fame League appear on their feeds. However, the numbers remain low, and essentially this boils down to the fact that the game isn't really fun enough to generate enough hype. Sure, you can have some local press coverage, but thats really not going to get you far.
Considering that I originally disagreed with many things that Yanjie shared during his presentation, I found myself very convinced of what he said during this group's presentation. I find it a little ironic that while they suggested focus for FAME league, the presentation itself lacked focus. Was he trying to tell us prediction markets was an interesting concept? Was he trying to tell us that the game sucked? This was extremely surprising, considering that the presenter was one of the better speakers out there.
Takeaways from the presentation:
1) The potential for Prediction market is huge
A quick google would tell you how big the potential of this is. Like the presentor said, its like an oracle to the future. Thanks to this presentation, I read up on prediction market. Although I din really get a clear enough picture of a prediction market from the presentation.
2) Less is more
The makers of FAME league clearly tried to bite off more than they can chew. Whether it is the UI design itself, or what they tried to achieve as an application. On facebook, less really is more.
3)It is indeed a waste of potential
If they don't capitalize on this, they have essentially wasted the first-mover's opportunity they have.
I must say that Prof Ben's question at the end of the presentation nailed it for me though: "If you think this app sucks so much, why are you even looking at it?"
I don't really think the creators intended to create a game that uses prediction markets. Its a trading/popularity game more than anything else. The prediction aspect of it is more of a side-feature kind of thing. I find the link between fame league and prediction markets at most trivial, even though the concept of prediction markets might have interested me.
During my googlewave meeting after the lesson, Henry said that we should support Singapore start ups. Much as I love hungrygowhere, but I support it not because its a Singapore startup, but because its good and provides me with what I need. Its just like how the FAS demands that Singaporeans should support the young lions instead of EPL. Like Prof has mentioned before, there are so many terrible Singapore start ups out there...
I guess you have to give kudos to Sociolico for their adventurous step forward. I for one will never have embarked on this project. FAME league was a waste of my time. I'm still darn annoyed that it spammed friends.
P.S. In other news, I feel extremely lucky to have been the first one to go first among everyone who quoted or used Prof Ben. Dilip's drawing lot skills FTW! I think Tomithy had a great draw to, to have gone after Pillow Fight and Causes.
P.S. In other news, I feel extremely lucky to have been the first one to go first among everyone who quoted or used Prof Ben. Dilip's drawing lot skills FTW! I think Tomithy had a great draw to, to have gone after Pillow Fight and Causes.
tag team (delayed post)
the deadline come and gone like the wind.
it was a fun, enriching and great experience working with 2 lao jiaos. (old bird) they were patient with my ignorance, and were extremely generous with praise and encouragement. even though I hardly coded, i got to muck around in Silverlight and Fireworks, and manage to come up with passable stuff.
dynamics-wise.... my group was totally drama free. everyone was ready to work, and there was no need for any conflict management or whatsoever. if we have differing views, we sort it out quickly and move on. i don't think there's a need to be too emotionally attached or anything. getting the job done is more important, i think if you want to be more effective, you should focus on that.
that said... in the last 12 hours we were at the mercy of AWS, facebook and SoC, who sent us a storm. our efficiency was limited just by the problems they created.
seb: "eh you kan cheong (nervous/panic mode) or not?"
jon: "no... not really... why leh?"
seb: "k good, cos i'm damn kan cheong. so don't talk to me."
... a while later....
seb: "@#$#$*&^%%&**! facebook is damn useless la!"
anyways, i think the best part for me was to hear my friends (who, in their own words, "dont speak computer" tell you that its really fun. i dont really know how we can sustain interest for the game.... but hey, its just the first assignment. i hope to come up with something more exciting for the final project.
so i think i've powered up (some what) and looking forward to the next adventure.
dynamics-wise.... my group was totally drama free. everyone was ready to work, and there was no need for any conflict management or whatsoever. if we have differing views, we sort it out quickly and move on. i don't think there's a need to be too emotionally attached or anything. getting the job done is more important, i think if you want to be more effective, you should focus on that.
that said... in the last 12 hours we were at the mercy of AWS, facebook and SoC, who sent us a storm. our efficiency was limited just by the problems they created.
seb: "eh you kan cheong (nervous/panic mode) or not?"
jon: "no... not really... why leh?"
seb: "k good, cos i'm damn kan cheong. so don't talk to me."
... a while later....
seb: "@#$#$*&^%%&**! facebook is damn useless la!"
anyways, i think the best part for me was to hear my friends (who, in their own words, "dont speak computer" tell you that its really fun. i dont really know how we can sustain interest for the game.... but hey, its just the first assignment. i hope to come up with something more exciting for the final project.
Friday, January 29, 2010
two roads divered in a wood.....
"Don't put all your eggs in one basket."
"One server can fail, but a fleet of servers will never fail"
sure, the guys from AWS were essentially here to "sell" amazon web services, but I really appreciated how they took into consideration that we were students, and did less selling and more sharing and teaching. i especially liked it when simone shared his experiences in order to put into context some of the concepts which wouldn't have made much sense to someone who has little understanding of the whole business of maintaining data centers
"If it ain't broken, don't fix it"
management of large companies with small foresight may not want to switch over to a whole new system. they are afraid of failure or perhaps resistance to change? the ground people probably don't have the guts, motivation or power to push for these changes. after all, why make your own life more difficult if everything is working right now. i too believe in the old adage. when things are going fine, why risk problems by fixing it? i mean, after all, the current way of doing things is most likely a process or framework that has been perfected after many runs and iterations. right?
maybe not. based on what little i know and what i've learnt from cvwo, when you develop a workflow, you're more than likely going to stick with it and live with it. only during the starting honeymoon period, where the workflow is being developed is there incentive for improvement and changes. once you've kinda settled into it, that's probably set in stone. you'd never want to risk a change whenever you couldn't afford it. an example would be as simple as getting from home to work/school. if you're used to a certain route, would you dare risk it on a day where you have an extremely important meeting/presentation?
The first mover's advantage
in business, this is damn important, apparently. this concept was first formalized to me by my econs tutor in jc. and in this scenario, like simone puts it nicely, it is the economics behind that is forcing the change into cloud computing. i think while we're focused on not fixing unbroken things, we should also look breaking new ground. in a way, thats WHY i'm here on this voyage - to sail into waters uncharted, to see lands unexplored.
| I shall be telling this with a sigh | |
| Somewhere ages and ages hence: | |
| Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— | |
| I took the one less traveled by, | |
| And that has made all the difference. |
on a last note, nice to know that amazon has set up camp in the little red dot.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
I destroyed my hands :)
Alright! I totally destroyed my fingers using with the Adobe Pen Tool. But I'm still very unsatisfied with my end product. Looks terrible kiddish, and unprofessional. Bah...
So I took a break here: Gametrailers' Angry Video Game Nerd: Hydlide Review
The video is part of a series which runs at Gametrailer.com. Essentially, a vulgar, angry dude picks out terrible old school games on old systems (Atari, NES, etc) and complains about them . In this episode, the target of his wrath is "Hydlide".
If you're allergic to vulgarities, you might just want to skip to 6:30min for the gist of the whole video. Why I'm sharing this video is because I felt that he actually said something that made some sense. He noted that essentially, this crappy game was just as cryptic as the first Zelda (for those who don't know what this is, Zelda is one of the all time most popular console game series) in terms of how to progress in the game. However, what made the difference is the design of the game made it fun for people to play, so people were willing to collaborate and discuss it, even though the game's puzzles were extremely difficult and cryptic. In order to beat Zelda, fans collaborated to come up with guides and game world maps (it was considered massive at that time) using game magazines. (obviously there was no Google then)
In days where collaboration was no mean feat, the design of Zelda managed to bring about such huge steps in their players. Today, Google makes this process so much easier. In some ways, I think this idea is rather important for facebook apps. As long you manage to earn some form of leverage over the users (be it a great design, addictive gameplay, essential services), users might actually be willing to help you back.
Of course, its not going to gain that form of leverage nowadays, since users can simply just SWITCH to alternatives once you can't deliver.
Anyway, i must do a disclaimer on my statement from my previous post. Its GOOD that Prof Ben keeps repeating himself. Why does he repeat himself? I think that it could be for two reason...
1) He really believes in what he says (in that its important for us to hear it)
2) People don't listen/People forget to what they hear
I had lots of fun (and pain) getting the version one of whoisthemonkey's UI done. Too bad I'm not paticularly pleased with my end product. Well, enough 3216 for the weekend.
So I took a break here: Gametrailers' Angry Video Game Nerd: Hydlide Review
The video is part of a series which runs at Gametrailer.com. Essentially, a vulgar, angry dude picks out terrible old school games on old systems (Atari, NES, etc) and complains about them . In this episode, the target of his wrath is "Hydlide".
If you're allergic to vulgarities, you might just want to skip to 6:30min for the gist of the whole video. Why I'm sharing this video is because I felt that he actually said something that made some sense. He noted that essentially, this crappy game was just as cryptic as the first Zelda (for those who don't know what this is, Zelda is one of the all time most popular console game series) in terms of how to progress in the game. However, what made the difference is the design of the game made it fun for people to play, so people were willing to collaborate and discuss it, even though the game's puzzles were extremely difficult and cryptic. In order to beat Zelda, fans collaborated to come up with guides and game world maps (it was considered massive at that time) using game magazines. (obviously there was no Google then)
In days where collaboration was no mean feat, the design of Zelda managed to bring about such huge steps in their players. Today, Google makes this process so much easier. In some ways, I think this idea is rather important for facebook apps. As long you manage to earn some form of leverage over the users (be it a great design, addictive gameplay, essential services), users might actually be willing to help you back.
Of course, its not going to gain that form of leverage nowadays, since users can simply just SWITCH to alternatives once you can't deliver.
Anyway, i must do a disclaimer on my statement from my previous post. Its GOOD that Prof Ben keeps repeating himself. Why does he repeat himself? I think that it could be for two reason...
1) He really believes in what he says (in that its important for us to hear it)
2) People don't listen/People forget to what they hear
I had lots of fun (and pain) getting the version one of whoisthemonkey's UI done. Too bad I'm not paticularly pleased with my end product. Well, enough 3216 for the weekend.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
when you come to know that you dont know much....
...you work even harder... (after spend some time feeling sorry for yourself)
sat's workshop on AWS might have been a little daunting for people with no real background with web development (including me). the aws lesson and start up guides are excellent in telling you the HOW aspect, but if you want to get a basic overview on WHAT is happening and WHY we are doing all this, you might want to take a look at a newb-friendly guide (the title says it all really). so you might want to check it out if you're still pretty lost on whats happening.
the advent of scrum/agile really isn't all that surprising. after all, we are in a world where change is so rapid. i think its a cool approach to doing things, not just big projects. the software development lecture on a whole was enriching, interesting and funny.
on an unrelated note, i just felt inspired to talk about prof.
1) prof often says the exact same things many times.
2) prof loves to pick on people (of course, its all in the name of fun :) poor angad)
3) dont ever walk in on him teaching if you're not in prof class. well, if you do, you could always come back with a witty retort.
4) there is an inner army regular in prof that surfaces rather often. (especially in his speech)
anyway, back to the topic. i especially enjoyed the sharing sessions. just from their presentations, i could see how and why they were project lead, production managers or team leads. i found myself sitting on the edge of my seat excitedly to be listening to their sharing on how work is like in those organizations. too bad there wasn't time to ask more questions.
the past week was interesting. for the first time, i got to REALLY try my hand at design. i was awfully disgusted by my product. i present my proud achievement:
after this past week, i've come to know how much i don't know. i may be from computing, but i think i might be easily one of those who know the least. and being surrounded in such knowledgeable company, is just like staring at the wide horizons and knowing how small i am compared to it. and these people are probably only the tip of the iceburg. i mean, sure, prof always says these are the best around in NUS, but there are definitely lots more talented people all around who didn't chose to take cs3216.
also, my whole body is aching TERRIBLY from my physio sessions....to top everything up, my first assignment is not going as well as i hoped it would be, but i'm glad to have such experienced and cool team mates.
BUT i guess this presents an opportunity for me to learn from the wealth of experience and knowledge available around. and i think the question is whether i can pick all these up fast enough.
so to sum up.... its been a terrible week....
...or not...
well, too bad life is not long enough to be mopping over your inadequacies. i deeply apologise for the apparent gloom and doom phase i seem to portray. the truth is, i'm not feeling particularly sad or anything. not that i have any time to. but i think its important to have this self-awareness to conquer greater heights...
sat's workshop on AWS might have been a little daunting for people with no real background with web development (including me). the aws lesson and start up guides are excellent in telling you the HOW aspect, but if you want to get a basic overview on WHAT is happening and WHY we are doing all this, you might want to take a look at a newb-friendly guide (the title says it all really). so you might want to check it out if you're still pretty lost on whats happening.
the advent of scrum/agile really isn't all that surprising. after all, we are in a world where change is so rapid. i think its a cool approach to doing things, not just big projects. the software development lecture on a whole was enriching, interesting and funny.
on an unrelated note, i just felt inspired to talk about prof.
1) prof often says the exact same things many times.
2) prof loves to pick on people (of course, its all in the name of fun :) poor angad)
3) dont ever walk in on him teaching if you're not in prof class. well, if you do, you could always come back with a witty retort.
4) there is an inner army regular in prof that surfaces rather often. (especially in his speech)
anyway, back to the topic. i especially enjoyed the sharing sessions. just from their presentations, i could see how and why they were project lead, production managers or team leads. i found myself sitting on the edge of my seat excitedly to be listening to their sharing on how work is like in those organizations. too bad there wasn't time to ask more questions.
the past week was interesting. for the first time, i got to REALLY try my hand at design. i was awfully disgusted by my product. i present my proud achievement:
( i'm sorry NUSSU SAVE.... i'm a proud tree killer, just like how i won't give up eating meat)
after this past week, i've come to know how much i don't know. i may be from computing, but i think i might be easily one of those who know the least. and being surrounded in such knowledgeable company, is just like staring at the wide horizons and knowing how small i am compared to it. and these people are probably only the tip of the iceburg. i mean, sure, prof always says these are the best around in NUS, but there are definitely lots more talented people all around who didn't chose to take cs3216.
(which happens to be the EXACT same thing that prof ben said in his 1101s "last lecture"... though he din do any pushups)
also, my whole body is aching TERRIBLY from my physio sessions....to top everything up, my first assignment is not going as well as i hoped it would be, but i'm glad to have such experienced and cool team mates.
BUT i guess this presents an opportunity for me to learn from the wealth of experience and knowledge available around. and i think the question is whether i can pick all these up fast enough.
so to sum up.... its been a terrible week....
...or not...
well, too bad life is not long enough to be mopping over your inadequacies. i deeply apologise for the apparent gloom and doom phase i seem to portray. the truth is, i'm not feeling particularly sad or anything. not that i have any time to. but i think its important to have this self-awareness to conquer greater heights...
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
a trip to the doctors
so i just came from my physio session in the afternoon.
while i was waiting for my turn, i saw this giant of a doctor talking to a patient, who had a cast with a special shoe over his right foot. the doctor was trying to explain something to him. the patient obviously felt that talking to him while seated was either uncomfortable or discourteous, so he stood up. the doctor then asked him to be careful and sit down, and then proceeded on with their discussion.
within seconds, the patient stood up again, before the doctor asked him to sit down again. after two more times this happened, the patient finally lost his balance and tripped. fortunately, he only fell back onto the chair, sustaining no injury.
so i was watching this spectacle rather curiously. why didn't the doctor just sit down beside the empty sit beside the patient, who clearly was NOT going to stay seated to talk to the doctor?
of course, i could say all i want, because
1) there's no guarantee i won't overlook the exact same thing if i were in his shoes, like the saying goes 旁观者清 (which means things are clearer to someone spectating)
2) maybe the doctor was REALLY REALLY busy at the end of the shift
anyway, my point is, i think if we remember to apply some common sense, and try to see things from the users point of view, we would be able to provide a much better user experience.
while i was waiting for my turn, i saw this giant of a doctor talking to a patient, who had a cast with a special shoe over his right foot. the doctor was trying to explain something to him. the patient obviously felt that talking to him while seated was either uncomfortable or discourteous, so he stood up. the doctor then asked him to be careful and sit down, and then proceeded on with their discussion.
within seconds, the patient stood up again, before the doctor asked him to sit down again. after two more times this happened, the patient finally lost his balance and tripped. fortunately, he only fell back onto the chair, sustaining no injury.
so i was watching this spectacle rather curiously. why didn't the doctor just sit down beside the empty sit beside the patient, who clearly was NOT going to stay seated to talk to the doctor?
of course, i could say all i want, because
1) there's no guarantee i won't overlook the exact same thing if i were in his shoes, like the saying goes 旁观者清 (which means things are clearer to someone spectating)
2) maybe the doctor was REALLY REALLY busy at the end of the shift
anyway, my point is, i think if we remember to apply some common sense, and try to see things from the users point of view, we would be able to provide a much better user experience.
Monday, January 11, 2010
ship out!
Main Entry: 1voy·age
Pronunciation: \ˈvȯi-ij, ˈvȯ(-)ij\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English viage, veyage, from Anglo-French veiage, from Late Latin viaticum, from Latin, traveling money, from neuter of viaticus of a journey, from via way — more at way
Date: 14th century
Pronunciation: \ˈvȯi-ij, ˈvȯ(-)ij\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English viage, veyage, from Anglo-French veiage, from Late Latin viaticum, from Latin, traveling money, from neuter of viaticus of a journey, from via way — more at way
Date: 14th century
1 : an act or instance of traveling : journey
2 : a course or period of traveling by other than land routes
3 : an account of a journey especially by sea
2 : a course or period of traveling by other than land routes
3 : an account of a journey especially by sea
i’ve chosen to name my blog gran viaje, which is spanish for grand voyage. was feeling particularly adventurous when i created the blog.
i think cs3216 is gonna be like a voyage. you kinda know the general direction what you're going towards, but you're basically heading into the uncharted waters. there will be no shortage of adventure, blood, sweat, tears and joy.
the funny thing is, i don't exactly know what i want to learn from this course. i mean, sure, there is going to be no shortage of hard web development skills, teamwork etc etc, what i truly desire is the experience of the unknown.
its just like what was said in the talk by tina seeling. there's no way of teaching things like creativity and entrepreneurship in a strictly classroom setting. we have to get our hands dirty. i love getting my hand dirty :)
so, i cant come up with a WHAT WILL I LEARN FROM CS3216 list, but i am hungry for the gran viaje that awaits me.
the funny thing is, i don't exactly know what i want to learn from this course. i mean, sure, there is going to be no shortage of hard web development skills, teamwork etc etc, what i truly desire is the experience of the unknown.
its just like what was said in the talk by tina seeling. there's no way of teaching things like creativity and entrepreneurship in a strictly classroom setting. we have to get our hands dirty. i love getting my hand dirty :)
so, i cant come up with a WHAT WILL I LEARN FROM CS3216 list, but i am hungry for the gran viaje that awaits me.
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