Author: Michael Yung

Michael possessed over 30 years of experience in Information Technology with focuses on complex application development, database technologies and IT strategy. He also spent the last 20 years in Internet technology, eCommerce development / operations, web usability, computer security and Public Key Infrastructure technologies.

#50

“很多人一輩子 無法完成的事
我們都做到了 … 我們一起做到了 …”

I read the above two lines couple of weeks ago in the latest album of F.I.R. (probably one of the best Asian “pop” bands in recent two years) and I thought “What a crap and how arrogant ??!!”.

But then last week I was in a SOA conference in Singapore and one of the speakers asked an open question – “Who among your companies are using XML message for messaging ?” … Out of all the attendees, I am the only one raised my hand. And you know, we did it 5 years ago.

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What is a community ? A forum, a photo gallery, or a web site ?

Couple of months ago I mentioned about the www.flickr.com, a web site that make use of tags and photos to connect tens of thousands Internet users together. Now look at how “tagging” technology expand … I particularly like the following two sites – both developed by a team of 7 people in a couple of months:

“What do you want to do with your life ?” – www.43things.com

“Where do you want to go ?” – www.43places.com

Simple idea, simple implementation, and the communities grow on its own.

Surf around the two sites, and see how they can gather thousands of users (around the world) in a couple of months. And then rethink the question – what is a community ? And … how can we build one ?

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Tough Time Never Last, Tough People Do.

What Are The Settings ?

This is probably the most popular question in all photo forums – “What are the settings?”. You know, whenever someone posted a good picture, forum goers will then post that.

  • What are the aperture setting, shutter speed ?
  • What is the ISO, what is the zoom range, what is the flash setting etc. etc. ?

I am always puzzled by that kind of questions. You know, we shall ask “Why” questions instead of “What” questions, such as why you took the picture this way, why you set the aperture to F4.0 etc. etc. ? You can learn from good pictures only if you know the Why’s …

I mean, will you take a good picture if you know the setting, even though you’re in the same spot at the exact same time ?

Lesson Learnt: Why ? Why not ?

Lung Set

Yeh right, you don’t understand what is “Lung Set”, and I did not understand that either, especially it was from a waitress in a Japanese restaurant … “Would you like to have a Lung Set?”

But of course within a split second, I understood what she was talking about … she was trying to introduce us the “Lunch Set”. Obviously, I could not help but kept giggling when she’s talking …

I eventually ordered, “Lung Set C please”.

Lesson Learnt: Should I revisit that restaurant again ? I don’t know …

Travel Planning

May be I am blind, or may be I am not Googled enough … but where can I find a good Travel Planning tool / web site ?

As far as I can tell, most of the so call “travel planning” tools or sites only let you plan your flight schedule, car rental, hotel stay etc. etc. And in M.Y. term, they are only “how you gonna transport” and “where you wanna stay” planning tool.

What I want is a tool to let me plan out where to go, how / when to get there, what to explore, what to wear, where to dine, where to shop, how much shall I pay etc. etc. – i.e. a tool on how to utilize all my time in the destination. That will be a bonus as well, if we can link in photos, reviews, shopping list, forum etc. etc.

Some friends asked me why I have to cram my holidays and yes, they are right … but I want options !!

Lesson Learnt: There are thousands of travellers like me out there and please someone develop such a web site for us – or else, I will develop one 😎

IT Episode 3 – More Flowcharts

So in the good old days, flowcharting was the mean to save punch cards and therefore money. But I soon found out that it saved me time as well …

Somehow in year 1 the professors in the university had a strange habit – that was to distribute the assignment, first thing in the class. In other words, they distributed the previous assignment results, then the new assignment, only then they started teaching.

That was great, you know. I could then draw up the flowchart for the new assignment in the class … after all, I knew all the stuff the professor wanted to teach the class. By the time the professor finished his teaching, I already completed the flowcharting, desktop coding, compiling and testing. The only thing outstanding for that assignment was to punch the cards and ran it …

You see, I just saved an hour or two of designing, coding and debugging as I had finished all, virtually in my mind, by the elegant flowcharting.

Lesson Learnt: Save more time, and mistakes by proper planning.