Author: Michael Yung

“Great meal. What pots did you use?“

Imagine you ask the above question to your mom and I am sure you will probably get some serious lessons from your mom straight-away. It is rather simple – the most important factor behind a great meal is the chef (i.e. your mom) but not the tool she use. And what about you ask the following question to a photographer ?

“Great photo. What camera did you use?“

And this ?

“Great web site. What database / web server / programming language / design tool did you use?“

You know, we have to remember our role – it is not the tool that develops the web site and web application, but it is us. We can develop / operate / monitor a good web site no matter what tools we use, we can also develop / operate / monitor a poor web site with the same set of tools. So if next time you were asked that question, answer the asking person that you and your colleagues did the great web site, not the tools.

But if I asked you “Poor web site / application, what tool did you use?”, I would expect answer like “I will check and resolve the problem, as soon as possible?”.

You know, it makes no sense to pass the ball around and waste our time in passing the ball. We have to own the skill, knowledge and problems. We have to solve the problems by finding out the root cause, as soon as possible, but not leaving it to another person in another day.

Mind you, as in my previous newsletter, if we did not cure our Achilles’ Heels, some one in the market will replace us – you and me – in no time. So, if you found a problem, solve it. If you have a good idea, share it. If you have a colleague need your help, extend your hand to help. If you have to work late to do all that, work late to deliver that – it is your job.

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In the old days, if something was dented or had a gash in it, or even if it had a hole in it, they used to fill the damaged area with wax, and then they would cover the wax over with a coat of paint and sell the item as though it were undamaged. In Latin, “Without Wax” is “Sin – Cere”.

Oh now you see, next time you end your letter / email with the word “sincerely”, it means “without wax” and it means “there is no cover-up and from the bottom of my heart”.

So … my sincere thanks (i.e. without wax) to those who worked very hard.

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“Be a professional in all that you do.“

August is a month of Olympic and you probably heard / watched enough stories about this already, so I will not bother you with a long email of the Olympic game details – but what about an ancient Greek myth about Achilles ?

According to Greek mythology (and the story of Troy), Achilles was the son of Thetis and Peleus, the bravest hero in the Trojan war. However, even for such a hero, he got a weak point and it’s called the Achilles’ Heel. (For the brief story of “Achilles’ Heel”, check out here … http://www.wordexplorations.info/Achilles-heel-story.html) The point I want to make in this month’s blog is – what are the team’s Achilles’ Heels ? And what are your Achilles’ Heels ?

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I am sure most of you enjoy traveling around the world and most of you (including me) don’t know why our city is a travel hotspot in the world (I think it is the top travel destination other than Bangkok).

May be we all tired of everything around us, or may be we just don’t care. But do you know there are really many fans in the world that loves our city and our movies, to death ? They even organized tours to here just to visit the movie filming locations …

http://www.lovehkfilm.com/features/hk_trip.htm
http://www.lovehkfilm.com/features/kozo_in_hk_chall_1.htm

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Talk about travel, I spent a week in Hokkaido couple of weeks ago and of course, one of the destinations was the Music Box Factory. If you’ve been there before, you have to admire the Japanese that they can make such small stuff to such a big business. However, couple of non-Japanese Asian (Chinese and Korean) did a great computer music box offline and on the Internet … it is really a great piece of art.

www.playmusicbox.com
(You see, our creativity is one of our Achilles’ Heels)

In the trip, I also finished a book by Dan Brown (who wrote the famous book Da Vinci Code) – Digital Fortress. It is a book about Murders, Spies, Killers, Internet and Public Key Encryption. So if you want to know more about how the ESD technology was used behind a thrilling fiction, check it out.

In addition, if you like to improve your presentation skill, try Speak like Churchill, Stand like Lincoln – it is a superb book.

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Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re probably right. – Henry Ford

In case you want to take a break to do some personal projects, here are my favorite ones – http://www.mini-itx.com/projects.asp. In that web site, you can find how other people turn something unimaginable to a personal computer. After all, logic will get you from A to B – imagination will take you anywhere.

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Or if you are planning to travel around … but don’t have time to do it. What about do it visually … http://ww4.tiki.ne.jp/~mmurakami/setoy/map.html

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It is your work in life that is the ultimate seduction. – Pablo Picasso

“Which piano should I buy if I want to play like Mozart? “

The above is one of the quotes I heard in one music instrument shop. Kinda funny, I thought. You know, even if you bought the best and most expensive piano in the market, you still could not play like Mozart. You need some talents but of course, the truth is you need a lot of hard work.

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Everybody is talking about Mainland China is our future, so what can you do about it ? Learning Putonghua or at least learn some Mainland China phrases, I suppose. So one of the best (and biggest) sites to visit is http://www.fane.cn/ (Fan E is “translation”). Within this site you will find a lot of translation of various English terms as well as a huge Translation market portal in China. Very useful and impressive.

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“There are three things that are important at Starbucks. Customer Relationships is the first and the other two don’t matter.” Linda Thompson, Director – Starbuck resource center

Webby Award (the only award that matters, from my p.o.v. …) announced their results this month. Again, check out the winners, they are really brilliant web sites – http://www.webbyawards.com/main/webby_awards/nominees.html.

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Not sure you know about this site or not. I visit this site once in a while to have some good ideas (in design and Photoshop) or just a laugh …

http://www.Worth1000.com

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“I have no special talents, I am only passionately curious” – Albert Einstein