Tech of the day: dotcom business models

Remember back in the hay day of the dotcom bubble (around 1999) if you build a website that could attract eyeballs, you could get rich? Well, it turns out it's still necessary to have a business model!

This article analyzes and breaks down all the existing models out there. Quite an interesting read. Not surprisingly, most websites out there still rely on ad dollars. I guess one could say it's no different from the dotcom bubble era. Just that the web ad market is more mature, especially after Google emerged.

Animal of the day: House Swift

This is another post about bird after I wrote about Hawaiian Petrel a few months ago. And I learned about House Swift because the Chinese University of Hong Kong has a construction project that requires to take down old nests of these birds so they are building new ones as replacements.

The interesting thing about House Swift (according to Wikipedia) is that it never settles on the ground. I started getting confused since its name means "without feet" (even this Mingpao article uses that phrase in the title!) but that is not a factual description! It does have feet.

Furthermore, does house swift indeed flies in the air all the time (again, that's what the Mingpao article and this implies)?The latter is conflicting about this. First it mentioned:

Swifts ... roosting only at night

Then it said:

Swifts can't perch because their feet are small and weak.

Well, I guess it does rest in its nest after all. Otherwise there is no need to build replacements for them.

Topic of the day: 10 years ago

Microsoft sent me an e-mail thanking me for using Hotmail for 10 years. (Isn't it amazing that I stick with them for that long?)

Well, the funny thing about that e-mail is that it mentioned "back around the time I started using Hotmail":
- Windows 98 was the hot new operation system!
- Titanic broke every box-office record imaginable.
- The Spice Girls were rocking stadiums from London to LA!

Do you still remember? I surely don't.

Oh yeah, I was 10 years younger then. :(

Topic of the day: What's wrong with America?

There were 8 mass murders in 4 weeks that took 50+ lives. That is very very wrong with this society.

Is gun control the answer? I am not sure. After all, this type of things do not happen in other "gun free" countries as often.

It might have to do with the illusion of so-called "American dream": people work hard and could do better than their previous generation here. Look at people around you and me. We are all afraid of losing our jobs (and the house and our kids' education that depend on them) This expectation is just too high. Nothing could keep improving forever. Sometimes it gets better. Sometimes it gets worse! For one thing, I don't think I could do better than my parents. Will my kids do better than me? Surely I hope so but it will be a challenge. When such a high expectation is not met, I could see some people become depressed and think of themselves as failure.

Maybe it's time to rethink and try not to reinforce the illusion.

Commercials of the day: Jazz trumpeter vs square pants

The 1st one is a Crown Royal commercial. The story line is about an old jazz trumpeter found a talented young musician on the street who also play jazz trumpet and reminded him how he got started. So he brought the young guy in the jazz club and jam with him.


Find more videos like this on AdGabber


I think it's a nicely done commercial (I'm biased though 'coz I love jazz) and suits Crown Royal's image perfectly.

I am not as certain about the 2nd one. It's for promoting Burger King's kids meal. Remember the controversial song "Baby got back" (was condemned for treating women as sex objects)? The lyric was rewritten to talk about square pants (as in the hit cartoon SpongeBob Squarepants) And in one scene the "king" was measuring the "back" or the pants of the chicks. I'm pretty sure it would draw criticisms and I indeed found some.



I could understand people who know about "Baby Got Back" would find this offensive and worry about sending kids wrong messages (women being sex objects) but I doubt kids would get that message at all.

Star of the day: Ken Griffey Jr.

The sporting event of the day is supposed to be the NCAA Basketball championship but I couldn't care less. I care more about baseball's opening day (it was opening night yesterday) Even though he is not on my team, I gotta give it to Griffey, for hitting a homer on his first day back as a Seattle Mariner. Junior: you are THE man!

每週冷飯:戰爭啟示錄

以下摘自2002年5月1號:

自從美蘇冷戰結束﹐除了生活在依然戰火連綿的個別地區的民眾﹐世人大都鬆了一口氣﹐以為戰爭的威脅不再存在﹔不過去年「九一一事件」卻把這個和平的假象狠狠的撕破﹐令我們不得不重新面對現今世界種種隱藏的危機。

事實上現今世界各地都埋藏著隨時可被宗教﹑種族以至政治理念衝突「引爆」的「火藥庫」﹐以巴(Israel and Palestine)﹑印巴(India and Pakistan)﹑波斯尼亞(Bosnia)等地的戰火皆由宗教以及種族分岐所引發﹐這些僅是全球「火藥庫」的冰山一角而已﹔更令筆者憂慮的是一股潛力巨大的極右化暗湧。

相信對歷史略知一二的朋友都知道在二次世界大戰前夕﹐全世界各地民眾皆面對不同程度的經濟困境﹐把責任推到新移民的排外思想﹐和以對外擴張勢力為解決辦法﹐在這種情況下最有市場。回顧第二次世界大戰前﹐德國納粹(Nazi)政權以及日本軍國政權皆以類似歪理取得國民支持。

不幸而且可怕的是﹐近日類似的思想在世界不少地方皆有借屍--全球經濟不景--還魂的跡象﹕日本首相小泉純一郎企圖藉著參拜供奉包括第二次大戰甲級戰犯在內的靖國神社提高支持率﹔法國極右翼政黨國民陣線黨魁勒龐(Le Pen)以主張排外打入總統選舉第二輪﹔奧地利公開讚揚納粹主義的自由黨在兩年前的大選中獲兩成七選
票﹔香港政府為阻止港人在內地所生子女移入製造危言慫聽的言論。他們都成功地挑動社會某些對現狀不滿﹑對前途不明階層的人士的情緒以取得支持﹐由這股極右化力量可能引發的全球戰爭危機實在不容忽視。

面對這些危機﹐作為無權無勢的小市民到底可以做些甚麼﹖我認為個人力量雖然微弱﹐但我們可以不平則鳴﹑口誅筆伐﹐向惡勢力說不﹐不作沉默或盲目的羔羊﹐以理性打倒成見﹐挺身而出捍衛公義﹕例如日本老兵篠塚良雄親身指證日軍七三一部隊當年侵華的暴行﹔法國三十萬名學生舉行示威聲討勒龐﹔ 耶路撒冷「希望之花學校(Hope Flowers School」藉著教導一班猶太以及阿拉伯學童合作種菜而播下和平種子等等﹐他們的做法均值得借鏡。筆者深信只要大家用心用力﹐我們還是有踏出戰爭陰影的希望。

七年後的今天﹐以上所述的「火藥庫」完全沒有降溫﹐世界只有變得更加不和平﹐
實在教人灰心﹐無論如何﹐筆者堅持繼續以一支筆桿捍衛公義﹐不會向惡勢力低頭。