Lin'sanity

Screenshot from New York Knicks

This is the hottest guy in Facebook nowadays - Jeremy Lin.

From the interviews, seems like he is a humble guy, despite all the limelights after 7 straight wins for New York Knicks.

This is my favourite quote from him.

"I don't want to let anything affect me or this team. We need to make sure we stick together, put our egos aside. When we put our egos aside and buy-in we're going to win ball games."
- Jeremy Lin

The popular words in Facebook for the past two weeks:

Lin'sanity, Everyday I'm Shuff'Lin, All'Lin, Absolute'Lin,  Lin'spirational...

He is the reason many people started watching NBA again.

And of course, underdog or well-prepared? This video says it all.

(One thing that I think quite sad about is, at the time Lin's news flooded Facebook and major tabloids,  Whitney Houston passed away. And there are just so few talk/tribute to her contribution in music industry)

Thress Simple Rules In Life

[Source] Facebook

Saw this image circulating in Facebook. At first, I thought its "just another MEME", then I decided to take a look.

Reflecting the points in the image:

1. If you do not go after what you want, you'll never have it : [CHECKED]
I'm working in a startup company - PayWhere. Although the pay is a little bit low (hahahaha), but I enjoyed the job scope and the learning opportunity there.
I'm aggressively working on my startup project also - #LS.

2. If you do not ask, the answer will always be no: [CHECKED]
I've a wonderful girlfriend, so obviously I had the answer - Yes.

3. If you do not step forward, you will always be in the same place: [CHECKED]
I'm always on the move in life. I think I've pass the stage where I'm still cling on computer games, or Facebook game (the more popular option nowadays), or emo-ing/grumbling about how life/people mistreat them (I mean, once a while is okay, but if you're posting it everyday, theres got to be something wrong with yourself that you should seriously reflect on). I'm just comparing myself with friends on Facebook here.
I feel there are a lot more for me to pursue (in terms of career, and skills) at this point of life.

So yup, to my brothers who are still playing games everyday, or aimlessly living through day by day:
- Stop playing games so "seriously" if you're not going to depend on that as a career in the future.
- Start planning/pursuing a career that you think you'll enjoy it for the next 30 years.

[Quote] Passion

"It takes ambition to go places, but passion to power dreams."
-- Anonymous

Very inspiring.


Reminds me of my dreams (at every stages of life).

(Just little info about me)

When I was in primary school,
I've always dreamed to become a astronaut. I collected and bookmarked articles, photos of space stations, planets, astronauts... but I realized this is a impossible dream for me, as I'm red-green (weak) colour blind. Not very serious that it will affect my daily life, but yeah, I can never pass the physical test for astronaut. Hence, this dream became just a hobby.

When I was in secondary school,
I've developed interest in computer/electrical/circuit hardware. I wanted to be a electrical engineer. I assembled/disassembled my own PCs, modded my own PC, and fixes the electrical appliances at home. At one point, I've realize the same "physical disability" prevents me from go any further with this dream. I could't differentiate/read the transistor colour-code (yellow and orange is too closed); I couldn't read the light indicators (yellow, orange and green are too closed). Hence this dream became just a hobby.

When I was in university,
I'm into programming. Because this is something that is just black and white (hmm, maybe the colour of codes changes code formatter for different software, but this doesn't affect in any way). This is my passion now - software engineering. A field that I dream to be professional/expert in. A dream that drives me everyday!

:)

What have you accomplished today?

Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful - that's what matters to me.
-Steve Jobs

Going to ask myself this every night: "Have I completed a small fragment of my dreams today?".

自尊；自卑

过分自尊就是自卑。

--　《琴动我心》

What if Plan A fails

if "PLAN A" doesn't work out, don't worry.. u still have 25 letters left!

Saw this on friend's FB wall, so sharing it here. To remind myself, and those of you who encounter difficulties in life.

----

Was working on my own web application lately, but faced a lot of issues, even with simple user account/authentication. Nvm, one step at a time. Its still something that I architec-ed out on my own.

加油!　がんばって！

Great Power come Great Responsibility

Was working on a new server of one of the client, and got this interesting system message.

We trust you have received the usual lecture from the local System
Administrator. It usually boils down to these three things:

    #1) Respect the privacy of others.
    #2) Think before you type.
    #3) With great power comes great responsibility.

[sudo] password for admin:
admin is not in the sudoers file.  This incident will be reported.

The server engineers sure have great sense of humour.

Update: Just realize this is the default message shown :)

----

Quick update for my day:

Very mafan to work on other people's server. Got connection, firewall, account privilege, all kinds of issues. Just feel so unproductive today! argh!

Victory

Victory is winning others, not defeating others.

Life can only be understood backwards

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."
~ Soren_Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

Reminds me of Steve Jobs speech during 2005 Stanford Commencement.

You can only connect the dots by looking backwards.

A lot of times, I can't comprehend fully the purpose behind the things I do daily. Why must I continue on to do daily chores that aren't going to bring any changes to the world and knowing the fact that we are all going to die anyway someday.

But, these quotes reminds me that, someday, when we look backwards, we will understand the significance of  those little-little-things-that-we-do-everyday.

Purpose of Life - Albert Einstein

“Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to a divine purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: That we are here for the sake of others...for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day, I realize how much my outer and inner life is built upon the labors of people, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.”

- Albert Einstein

Induction

If asked why we believe the sun will rise tomorrow, we shall naturally answer, “Because it has always risen every day.” We have a firm belief that it will rise in the future, because it has risen in the past.

– Bertrand Russell

Family

Family is the starting point. They feed you, take care of you, until you are ready to go out into the world to find you tribe.

- Grey's Anatomy S02E12

PSI level

The higher the PSI, the more the pee sai.

- peranakanlily

Its very obvious that the PSI has gotten worse today compared to yesterday, or even this morning, but the PSI level shown at the NEA site still show the same reading, or more kua zhang, lower reading...

Oh, btw, now, the server is unaccessible. Overloaded I guess. NEA should expect this and use better server (in terms of bigger burst bandwidth), because everyone will only access the site during "crisis".

Facebook for China

How can you connect the whole world if you leave out 1.6 billion people?

- Mark Zuckerberg

Saw another friend commented about this - Zuckerberg's strategy for China.

Well, I think both Google and Facebook has the potential to go into China's market, unless China starts to improve on the censorship and website quality (in terms of originality and service coverage).

Just my random thought, because I realized that most of my China friends are using Google services, and Facebook more often compare to Baidu or 人人网 (ren ren wang).

---

Just thought of some problems that I think most local sites faced.

Limited user domain... the problem

The reason why all the (local) sites, not only Chinese sites, fails in the long run is because their user/data domain is too limited, too localized in other words. With advancement of internet, people wants more info, from around the world.

And with the overloaded information, people just want as few entry points (search engine, or portal) as possible to get them to want they want. This comes to a point, which website should we remember? There are so many web addresses out there...

Some people, like me, choose to remember only the major sites, and combine/integrate other sites into it. For example

• Google - to link me to other sites with "i'm feeling lucky". 
• Gmail - to check all other inboxes (Hotmail and Yahoo... got forwarded there), and to video call (replacing msn, and skype)
• Twitter - to communicate with tech friends.
• Facebook - to stay in touch with common friends (who already abandoned Friendster, MySpace...) 

Local (small) sites couldn't provide better service... in the long run

Take Gothere.sg for example, not sure how long the site can survive. I find that the service is good, and accurate when it just started few years back. But now, often, I'll double check my result with Google Maps, and most of the times, Google Maps returns better results. Maybe because lack of technology and expertise to further improve on the site?

Another interesting fact to know is that, Youtube wasn't that popular back in 2006. Until Google acquired it and start to "globalize" it. Google sees Youtube as a potential source of advertising revenue; While Youtube sees  Google as the source for their expansion - leveraging on their server technology and global reach. The outcome - good user experience makes Youtube a better choice compared to other local "media entertainment" platform.

Conclusion?

This makes me think that, the only way a site (especially local site) can survive, is to evolve rapid enough and not to be held back by geographical-limited user domain, and most important - server technology. If you going to stay at where you are, most likely, your company will be engulfed by other big company.

The different Facebook-wannabe sites :)

伟人一生

天降大任于斯人也，必先苦其心志，劳其筋骨，饿其体肤，空乏其身，行指乱其所为，所以动心忍性，曾益其所不能。

《孟子》

【译文】

上天将要降落重大责任在这样的人身上，一定要道先使他的内心痛苦，使他的筋骨劳累，使他经受饥饿，以致肌肤消瘦，使他受贫困之苦，使他做的事颠倒错乱，总不如意，通过那些来使他的内心警觉，使他的性格坚定，增加他不具备的才能。

天薄我以福，吾厚吾德以迓之；天劳我以形，吾逸吾心以补之；天厄我以遇，吾亨吾道以通之，天且奈我何哉？

陈继儒 -《小窗幽记》

【译文】

假如上天不肯给我很多福分，我就多做些善事来培养我的福分；假如上天用劳苦来困乏我，我就用安逸的心情来保养我疲惫的身体；假如上天用穷困来折磨我，我就开辟我的求生之路来打通困境。假如我能做到以上各点，上天他又能对我如何呢？

吾十有五而志于学,三十而立,四十而不惑,五十而知天命,六十而耳顺,七十而从心所欲,不逾矩。

孔子

【译文】

孔子说：“我十五岁立志于学习；三十岁能够自立；四十岁能不被外界事物所迷惑；五十岁懂得了天命；六十岁能正确对待各种言论，不觉得不顺；七十岁能随心所欲而不越出规矩。”

Journey and Destination

What matter the most is the journey, not the destination.

Most people always talk about this...

But what I think this is (far) more important is...

Its the destination (goal) that align together people in the same journey.

A common goal/destination, this is very important during the journey. ONLY people who share the same desire for a common goal, who been through together to achieve something together will understand the value of a the journey that they've been through together and thus appreciate it.

怕苦

不怕苦就苦一阵子；怕苦就苦一辈子!

- Anonymous

Love this! Will use this to remind myself from time to time!

Planning

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

- Anonymous

F.O.C.U.S

One of the better definition that I have heard for the word "focus" is using the word as an acronym

F - Follow
O - One
C - Course
U - Until
S - Successful

- Robert Kiyosaki

The mind that opens to a new idea never comes back to its original size

The mind that opens to a new idea never comes back to its original size.

- Albert Einstein.