Inspired by @AndrewDumont's "How I Made a 26-Hour Day", I decided to reschedule my time for the year 2013.

7:00am - Roll out of bed
7:15am - Breakfast
7:30am - Blog/Hack
8:45am - Go to office
6:30pm - Leave office
7:30pm - Dinner
8:00pm - Online Course
10:00pm - Freelance Work
12:00pm - Sleep

Stages of Life

1. New interns are almost 10 years younger than you.
2. Slowly, one by one relative passing away, or diagnosed with diseases.

You know you are stepping into yet another different stage of life.

Good talk Between Kevin Rose and Brian Wong (19)

Kevin Rose Talks To Brian Wong of Kiip.me - Foundation

Enter University at 14 years old, Brian Wong is very amazing.

Created an app (Twitter tool) at 16 years old. Pretty amazing!

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Cool dad, brought back a computer for his kid. Not knowing what can be done using the computer, but just know that that's the future.

I'm going to do the same - supportive towards what my kids interested in, and try to guide them as close as possible. :)

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Power of Internet... and Social Media - Kony 2012

The power of Internet, and in particular social media, has resulted in information widespread at a tremendous and scary speed.

Uganda's Kony
This is the best example.

The video was created and uploaded to Youtube by a charity group called Invisible Children 4 days ago on  5th March.

The video was very well produced and with the push of social media, the video has 52 million views in 4 days.

Invisible Children manage to raised $5Mil in 48 hours, reported by National Post.

A lot of people (I'm referring mostly to my friends) talks about supporting the cause instantly after watching the video. I was quite convinced with the video without second thoughts at first, until one of my friend posted on my Facebook wall.



I started digging down the rabbit hole. 

Some artist, including Justin Bieber supported the cause.

this is not a joke. this is serious. TOGETHER we can #MakeAChange and #STOPKONY - help another kid in need! - youtu.be/Y4MnpzG5Sqc
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) March 8, 2012

The are few news coverage on this viral video. Some supported, some critiqued on the financial transparency and expenses of Invisible Children, mislead the crowd and oversimplifythe situation in Uganda.

It stinks of easy answers, of foreign do-goodery, of over-simplistic interference that gives us all a nice warm fuzzy glow.
- Tory Shepherd

Invisible Children reports that in an official account of the $13.7 million raised in the 2010/11 financial year, $8.8 million was allocated for expenses - including filming costs, transportation and production.
- news.com.au

And another video spawned after a few days, titled Somebody is Lying.

Epilogue

Until the facts are made clear, I shall withhold my judgement on this issue. Indeed the video clearly delivered the information that justify the supports for arresting Kony. But on the other hand, the other video seems legit also.

Shall conclude this with this article that titled

"People Aren't Smart Enough for Democracy to Flourish, Scientists Say"
- livescience.com

The power of freedom is good, but sometimes it boils down to this fundamental problem - Are majority of people capable enough exercise critical thinking or... are majority of people still "lack the mental tools needed to make meaningful judgments".



References:
http://www.news.com.au/world/its-all-over-the-webs-but-what-is-a-kony/story-e6frfkyi-1226292956990
http://www.invisiblechildren.com.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/critiques.html
http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.reviews&orgid=12429
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/07/joseph-kony-invisible-children_n_1326759.html
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03/08/kony-2012-video-raises-5m/

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.

Random

Sometimes when I see those people who don't have proper career, and yet always enjoy themselves (overly) - party, drinking, clubbing... I just couldn't help to ask what kind of mentality do they have in mind.

Do they even think about the responsibility they suppose to bare? e.g. start living in "real world" and start earning money, or saving money (if they still rely on parents at this kind of post-teenage age) - so they can take care of their parents in the future, financially and time-wise (assume if they achieve financial freedom)?


This topic reminds me of the question that I've always thought of in the past. Should we

• live our life the way as-long-as-we-are-happy and purely enjoy our life? or
• devote our time and struggle hard to achieve something big in life (that have significant contribution to the society, or human kind).

Very admire those scientist (and those open source developers) who devoted and contributed their life for a better world.

Well, still, everyone always have the option to enjoy and party throughout his life.

And this is "the beauty of diversities".  :)

Plan

It a long weekend, glad that I actually came up to KL to meet relatives and also YC's family.

Stayed at YC's house yesterday night, and had the chance to talk to YC's father. The conversations wasn't long ones, and it wasn't anything philosophical, neither questions about my plan in life. Its just about what he do nowadays. Simple yet realistic. It definitely changed my perspective about a 10 year business/investment plan. And it definitely refreshed my memory on a lot of aspect in life.

Maybe stayed in Sg too long without going anywhere, and and the daily routine working life has limited my mindset about business opportunities. Always thought Sg has more opportunity and My is very unstable/chaotic - hence Sg has more opportunities. But but if you look further, a long term plan, actually My has equal opportunities as well.

Theres a lot of types of investments. All of them are good, its just whether the ROI is what we want.

Just random thoughts.

:)

Life, what is it all about?

Saw this video posted by a lot of friends in Facebook.

Most people's first reaction/impression is that - This is a very noble project - It educates people about what we only need everyday - Food, Energy, Medicines, Entertainment (in the form closest to nature). On top of that energy saving, reduce waste consumption...

But what comes into my mind is rather different after watching this video.

It make me worry for those people who live-life-simple and not willing to update themselves to technology. I'm not suggesting that we should buy phones for kids, but rather, educates them how to harvest knowledge using technology. There are just so much we can do with technology to find information very quickly, communicate and share ideas with the rest of the world - To improve this world.

The best real-life example now is the political shift in Egypt. Its because of social media technology like Facebook, and Twitter. Knowledge can flow to people around the country. And power-greedy dictators around the world can no longer keep people in the dark and keep on manipulating them. People start to speak up and rights can be protected.

These kind of shift of paradigm is what important to improve the world.

Just imagine what will happen if everyone starts to live-life-simple... there bound to be tragic incident like Second World War, where hundred thousand of helpless civilians in Nanking were murdered; or in Libya now, where innocent citizens were shot because Colonel Gaddafi ordered to battle against rebels "till the last bullet"; or in China, were the central government block and filters access of information to its people in order to counter "'Jasmine Revolution", some of the activist even got caught and never returned ever since.

This world is still full of power-hunger people. And it will always be if not everyone has access to knowledge. Only technology enables every single person with equal chances to reach out to knowledge.

Untitled

Have a friend whos parent complained that she spend too little time at home compared to school.

Have another friend whos sister bluff her parents that she need a DSLR for school work.

What happened to this world? The parents become so childish and the kids become so shameless?

As parent, I think they should let their children off to explore the world. Especially when they are in university level. How can you ground them at home with you to "enjoy life" with you when they are suppose to go out there to fight. The parents have seen enough of the world, not their child. Plus, their world and their childs' are completely different.

As a child, I think we should always help our parents by putting our selves in their shoes. Children nowadays are very spoilt. Alot of them always spend unnecessary money just to show off to their friends. Clubbing, drinking, or even worse, gambling.
But, I guess its the parents who failed to educated them properly since young.

Don't know what these people thinking...

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 :)

Foound

"This is not checking in, because frankly, why do you want to check-in alone when you can start hanging out with friends on Foound. - Danny Tan"

I like the closing by Danny, the founder of Foound.

 If you look closely on the existing applications, like 4□.. which does nothing in bring people together, or solving existing real-world problems. They are just new play-toys which (most) people try and forget about. Of course there are still many out there who uses these apps. But personally, me and the tech friends around me has stopped playing with FourSquare after few weeks of testing. Ok, this is not my main point of this article. Read more on this topic at newsweek.

What attracted my attention to Foound is it's idea of solving problems that we all face everyday - Trying to organize a gathering.

Is there any existing solution? Yes, there are... Facebook event? Google Calendar? But they don't help you link up with your friends who is not those platform.

I think what fundamentally makes Foound a useful app is that

• It helps answer basic info that people will want to know about a hang-out
• When, 
• where, 
• who is going...
• It helps bridge people from different platform
• Facebook, 
• email, 
• sms...

Was talking to Danny few weeks back at Tertiary Tech Conference (TTC), and asked him about Foound for Windows Phone 7/Mobile and Android. He said the team has plans for Android, but not Windows at the moment.

Can't wait for the Android app!

Heres another media interview video.

Foound interviewed by InLab Ventures

More links:

1. http://foound.com/
2. http://blog.foound.com/
3. InLab Ventures media interview with Foound

p/s: I think start-up ideas should be something like this, solving existing real world problem instead of introducing new options to the world.

《最后的礼物》

在《星云》15页看到这篇以《最后的礼物》为标题的文章。作者是李永业。

文章叙述作者与父亲最后几年的一些回忆。

在父亲去世7年后，作者从英国回返大马，看看母亲决定卖掉的房子。在收拾房间的当儿，作者发现一个褐色纸袋，当中有皮包，腰带，衣服，等等。那些都是这二十年来，作者去英国后，每年送给父亲的生日礼物。作者当下心揪了一下痛，觉得自己好傻，还傻了二十多年。父亲竟然不曾使用过！

作者离开后，被遗弃在客房褐色纸袋成了作者心中永远解不开的谜。

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我觉得，也许作者并不了解父亲。

有些人，比如我自己，喜欢把礼物收起来不用。那是表达我很珍惜与在乎礼物的一份心意。我想把礼物保存于完好无缺的状态，我不希望礼物是因为我使用而损坏。

也许作者父亲也是如此爱惜那二十年来的礼物。

如果是这样。。。我倒觉得作者有点可悲，这么多年，还不了解父亲的心意。可惜啊。

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p/s: 我好久没看星洲日报了！！！看了女友带来的这份星洲，感觉真好。

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Update(27,Sept): 原来李永业已经回国了，而且还上了NTV7专题报道。

What Gaming Means to You and Your Future.

 Dedicating this post to some of my friends (you know who you are) and my brothers and sister.

Saw a lot of negative comments on this Youtube video.

The problem with video games (or other technologies in the form of entertainment) is there are many out there who plays video games (or other entertainment-technologies) as if its part of their life. They spent their precious time dwelling in the game without having a clear direction of what they are doing, and what video games mean to their FUTURE.

For example, I have friends who...

1. Surf in Facebook every night, browsing friends album over and over again.
2. Play video games every night, and switch from game to game after few years.
3. Watch PPStream whole every night, and almost exhaust the list of dramas/series.
4. Play WoW every night, and has few maximum-level character, but moved on to another game now.
5. ...

The thing is, if we are very clear of what we are trying to achieve in our future via all these video game, then its perfectly fine.

1. I have friends who play games throughout their childhood, but they are working in game development industry. Thats their inspiration and dream, and the play and fought hard to excel in that area.
2. I have friends who play games throughout their childhood, but they are professional games now in world gaming arena. They play games representing countries, representing companies, representing communities...

So start thinking of why you play games whole night, why you Facebook whole night... Do all these time spent worth anything to you and your future, and your future family?

I think the take-away from this video is

We are the first generation forced to find a balance between letting technology improve our lives, or risk allowing it to dominate us.

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.

Feel bad of Making Joke of this friend

Ah, just heard news about a friend's mom got cancer.

No wonder she's been busy for the past few months.

Feel bad for making jokes of her "busyness", when she didn't even defend herself.

So sorry.

Hope miracles happen so her mom can recover.

我的鼻子不見了 - My nose lost

So funny the kid.

Saw a lot people commented that the parents are awful, mean, making fun of the child and affects the kids mental growth.

How many parents out there willing or have time to play with their kids? How many parents willing to sacrifice their time for watching TV, watching games, going out shopping with friends... just to play with their kids.

At least through these interaction they know their kids them better. Like some kids (and babies), they will get jealous easily.

To those people who gave negative comments:
Just ask yourself, how much time you will be willing to spend with your kids? How will your interaction with your kids be if its not through simple-and-fun games like this?

A quote from my brother

Gonna show this to my little brother when he grow up. Teens nowadays... or should I say, teens that didn't plan further down their journey in life.

If you having the same thought. Remember, note it down and look at it years later, when you start working. Convince me that you are right.

just random thoughts

A lot people have the misconception of "undergrads must come out and work as normal employees in a company". They just can't open to new concepts.

Sometimes, they rather stay at home, doing nothing, or play, instead of going out to source for potential part time jobs or start to think about small business that might be their source of passive income.

For me, I think we should start early. Start to build our network and business as early as possible. So that our business can mature before we get old.

So that we can live a better (rich) life, and avoid being the victim in the world where the middle class is slowly disappear.

But if they just want to live a simple life, where what they earn is just enough for their living (and not enough to cover the expenditures in case of emergencies). Then what they have in mind is perfectly fine.

-untitled-

Surroundings and events that I went to past few weeks have changed my mindset.

It’s some what like fated for me to meet these people in sequence, thus enable me to accept what they said better.

---

I want to be like daddy - be able to earn 5 digits of income, passive income. I want to achieve financial freedom before 30.

I know its not going to be easy, but I’m mentally prepared for it. I know what I must do for the coming years. I know the consequences, or rather what I will not be able to enjoy, if I don’t hit this target, or should I call it dream.

So, yup, really grateful for thees “coincidences” in the past few weeks.



p/s: Daddy and mommy, fast fast hit your target and guide me as well : )

Financially Free

Sometimes, when I look further down the road ahead, I just have the feeling that if I don't do something "extra-ordinary" now, I will definitely be stuck forever.

Looking at the study loans and my current financial status, do a little simple-simple maths, I simply can't see how my life would be a easy-breeze one.

Houses nowadays is about 1M, cars about 100K... not even factor in retirement and maybe family expenses... everything just seems impossible to achieve in short time, before I'm turning 40/50.

Sometimes when I look at people who has already succeeded, regardless the path they took, it just makes me wonder... am I missing any opportunities that lies ahead? I don't want to end up 10 years down the road and regret that I didn't force myself to grab that choice.

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost is exactly my feeling now.

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

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.