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。

Eat of the day: Midnight truffle vs Chocolate Extreme Blizzard

If I have to pick an all time favorite dessert, it's gotta be Blizzard from Dairy Queen. And if I have to pick 1 flavor, it would be chocolate extreme (with brownie pieces, chocolate fudge......) Still, I have been looking forward to new flavors for a while. And I found it this week: a brand new flavor called "Midnight truffle." The funny thing is the poster of "Midnight truffle" looks very similar to chocolate extreme. I studied the ingredient carefully and it turns out the difference is the former has truffle while the latter has brownie. The rest is basically the same. And the winner is...... Midnight truffle!

Musician of the day: Tomonori Nishimura

I was looking for the music of the popular new age pianist Yukie Nishimura and ended up finding this album
Fritilaria
by Tomonori Nishimura. Interestingly this is also new age but at the other end of the spectrum, compared to Yukie's music.

I cannot find any info by Googling his name though. If you know more about this artist, please comment.

Tech of the day: FLAC and MP3FS

The company who owns the patents of MP3 is pushing a new format, MP3HD, which combines both losslessly compressed audio and the original (lossy) MP3 in a single file for backward compatibility (the lossy part is playable on all existing MP3 players) This idea was bashed heavily by Slashdotters. And they mentioned a very interesting alternative: rip your music to the lossless (and open source) FLAC format. Then mount the directory using MP3FS. The files will be "seen" as MP3 (transcoding is performed on the fly whenever the files are accessed) so they could be transferred to devices that could only play MP3. And you could play the FLAC files directly through applications like Foobar2000. No double-ripping and wasted storage!

Topic of the day: how to suppress freedom of speech effectively?

Learn the Hong Kong way: tell the protesters they won't get hired.

Here is the background: Hong Kong government is planning to subsidize companies to hire new HK college grads as interns. The monthly salary will be HK$4000 (~US$516.) This has caused an outrage in the college community because it artificially surpress the wages to a unreasonable level (I made HK$4000 per month as an intern 15 years ago. Does the government think there is no inflation for the last 15 years?) Some students are organising protests because they think the government is only doing this to drive down unemployment and make the officials look good. They would be better off without it.

Hong Kong legislator Priscilla Leung has made some comments about this (link to video in Cantonese) and drew heavy criticism by some HK bloggers. Those blog posts were titled "Leung says protesters won't get hired." Well, the whole context was that Leung worked in a college and was told by business owners not to recommend students who were protesting to them. So, it's not her who suggested to businesses not to hire protesters. Still, she did mention she was against the protests. She indeed suggsted students to accept the low wages for now and expect better things in the future.

BTW, Leung was backed by a church who was (in)famous for its anti-homosexual stance and in return she was against a proposed domestic violence victim protection law to include homosexuals.

Music of the day: Taranta, Estudio

I have not listen to much music during my trip. So of course I have to make up now that I'm back. Found this gem by the previously mentioned Lenny Breau in which you could hear clearly his classical influences:
Taranta.

While in the mood of classical, here is another beautiful track, written by Tarrega and performed by Liona Boyd:
Estudio in E. And it is easy enough that even I could play it (the TAB could be found in Fifty Easy Classical Guitar Solos)

Game of the week: Hong Kong Sevens

It was actually held last weekend and it is the biggest sports event in Hong Kong every year, which is interesting because rugby (or the seven men version of it) is far from the most popular sports in Hong Kong (that honor belongs to soccer) I think it does have its appeal: what other team sports tournaments that feature teams from 24 country could complete in a weekend?

Most importantly, Hong Kong won 2 big matches (against Portugal and Tonga, which was the eventual silver plate winner!) and was the only Asian team that qualified to play for the silver plate. (The top 8 of 24 teams played for the highest honor, silver cup, while the bottom 8 played for the silver bowl)

每週冷飯﹕安樂主義

摘自01年12月15號﹕

早一陣子從朋友處學到「安樂醒」這個新名詞﹕即是早上不用鬧鐘﹐順其自然地起床的意思。靈光一閃﹐覺得這種態度其實可在日常生活很多方面派上用場﹐為了實踐這個想法﹐筆者數月前和友人到加洲優山美地(Yosemite)搞了一個「安樂Camp」﹐包括以下活動﹕安樂行山(不設定任何目的地﹐略為疲倦立即折返)﹔安樂食(任意進食﹐隨時加料)﹔安樂飲(各適其式﹐可醉可不醉)﹔當然還有安樂醒﹐因為基本上整個行程並無特定節目﹐因此全無時間限制。至於安樂駕駛﹑隨意停車更不在話下﹗

想深一層﹐「安樂主義」其實是和中國道家傳統一脈相承﹕無求﹑無為﹐在充滿矛盾和節奏急迫的現代社會﹐這個不失為一個取得平衡的生活態度﹐從個人層面可令人心平氣和﹐從社會層面更可能達致世界和平﹗各位朋友﹐不妨一試﹗

當年順其自然的生活實在令現在有兒有女的筆者感慨良多﹐所謂此一時彼一時﹕
1) 行山不可能設定任何目的地﹐小朋友略為疲倦立即折返。
2) 不能任意進食﹐小朋友食飽方為大前題。
3) 飲酒不可醉﹐否則無人照顧小朋友。
4) 早上不用鬧鐘﹐視乎小朋友何時要起床。
5) 開長途車必須將就小朋友的如廁時間表而停車。

想深一層﹐現在以安樂來形容生活倒是貼切﹐此樂不同彼樂﹐乃係天倫之樂也。

Magazine of the day: Audiophile (Hong Kong)

If there is such thing as audio equipment news junkie, I would be one. Even though I rarely buy any equipment, I just love reading the reviews or even the advertisements! Those gears always look interesting to me. One of my favourite magazine is Audiophile from Hong Kong. Most of the gears are so exotic (and not to mention, expensive) that I'll never own one. However, the March 2009 issue is an exception: it has a special on complete systems that are under HK$30k (~US$4k) Definitely a good read. I could see 2 trends in this mag:
1) more and more coverage of brands from China. After all, they make affordable gears and they know the taste of audiophiles in Hong Kong and China well.
2) even though most of the systems are still being used with CD players, some are taking PC/iPod into account. And I believe that is the future.

Topic of the day: future of music

I came across two music related stories on Slashdot:
1) An Israeli guy named Kutiman has created an album (or project if you will) named ThruYOU where all songs/videos are remixes of videos from YouTube. Here is one of his video:


2) 17 million people stopped buying CDs in 2008. Well, I am not one of them. I have bought less than 10 since 2005 when I started using Rhapsody. (Before that I used to buy ~1 every week) In any case, no one should be surprised since it is so much more convenient to buy from online stores like iTunes or just listen to highly personalizable streaming like Pandora or Last.fm.

What's more interesting is that there is a common theme in the responses to these stories: music these days sucks. (Someone even posted an audio file which contains 2 songs from Nickelback and they sound almost the same musically. Will talk more about this when I get a chance) And of course there are rebuttals, and they do have some points:
1) most people are "attached" to the music that they grew up with and thus dislike newer music.
2) even musicians that do not keep "pushing the envelope" can make good music. And I totally agree. The best example could be found in blues: a lot of blues musicians are still following the same "formula" that is almost 100 years old but as long as listeners could emotionally connect to them, they are good music. Music can be good for many different reasons.

Topic of the day: cheering for the team that beat yours

Cheering for the team that beat yours is true sportsmanship. Supporting them financially? That's yet another level higher! Here is the story: McClymonds High School from Oakland beat Monte Vista from Danville and advanced to the state championship, which is held in Sacremento (~2 hours away). Due to lack of funding, the team was not able to get there one day in advance and stay at a hotel overnight before the championship game.

Now this is the heartwarming part: People familiar with the area would know Danville is an affluent community. A Monte Vista parent heard about this and wanted to help so he organized fund raising and got enough money to cover McClymonds' cost of accommodation. And they also wanted to do it anonymously.

The story didn't end here though: Oakland's school district learned about this and asked McClymonds to return the money because the district do have enough money for that and would pay instead. Whether this has to do with saving face or not is up to your interpretation. Nevertheless, it is a happy ending.

Music of the day: Revelation by Joe Satriani

This song was voted by Guitar Player's reader as the "Best guitar solo on an album released in 2008." If you think about it, there are tons of guitar solo from albums released in 2008, it is really a honor to win that award. And if you listen to that track, you will know why. I guess the more appropriate description would have been best guitar instrumental track. It is vintage Satch: great melody and full of energy yet sounded fresh enough to differentiate from his old stuff.

BTW, the rest of the awards are not as interesting: so many repeat winners. For example, Pat Metheny and Joe Bonamasa won both 2008 and 2009 in the jazz and blues category, respectively.

Topic of the day: AIG bonuses

As a taxpayer myself, there is no way for me to be happy about AIG employees receiving big bonuses even though the company needed taxpayer's money to bail it out. On the other hand, I have my reservation about the way politicians are dealing with this.

First of all, some politicians are just exploiting this to earn more votes at the next election. Don't be fooled by them.

Secondly, AIG defended by saying some bonuses were given because of contractual obligations so some politicians are suggesting to pass law to invalidate those contracts. IMO it is dangerous considering it is done retroactively. Imagine your own contract with your employer. Is it OK to change the terms without your consent? You probably don't think so. Of course, this is just my layman's way of looking at contracts. A lot of legal experts think otherwise. And they do have a point. After all, aren't insurance companies the best at making use of the fineprints in order NOT to honor contracts? Our government lawyer might be able to do the same thing!

I remember President Obama had problems with bonuses given to employees of Wall Street firms earlier as well. And I disagree at that time too. Bonuses being a substantial part of the compensation was the culture of Wall Street. I felt quite personal about it because when I worked there, my guaranteed bonus was ~20% of my salary. That was the reason why I would accept the lower salary. Can you imagine being denied that much of your total compensation?

Topic of the day: some people are (too) sensitive

Here is the story: a guy who works for a PR firm was visiting his client Fedex in Memphis. Regarding the city, he posted this via Twitter:

True confession but I’m in one of those towns where I scratch my head and say I would die if I had to live here!

Then someone from Fedex learned about this and wrote a letter to his higher-up at Fedex to complain about this Tweet.

I think I won't be too happy if someone thinks my home town sucks but I won't react this way either. Seems too sensitive to me. This blogger seems to agree. Of course you would hear a lot of comments about being careful with what you tweet but this blogger has a good explanation: it is easy to take Tweet out of context.

Maybe I have offended some Fedex-er by writing this post already. Ooops.