2012
The Path Least Taken
Just now while I was doing an evening run, a few thoughts came into my mind in conjunction to some recent moments in life.
There’s nothing I can’t handle; just a matter of how good I am at it. That’s me.
And after running, an emotion triggered me to post this into my Weibo (informally dubbed as China’s Twitter).
These 2 Weibo posts can basically be translated to:
In this mobile age, are the “closing from work” and “commencing of work” CNY practices still relevant? I have technically started working on the first day of CNY, even though office is closed.
But it’s not because I’m self-employed now that I’m putting more efforts at work. I have always been replying email and supporting overseas customers during CNY while I was employed last time. Time has changed, it’s the age of globalization now. Our week-long public holidays, doesn’t mean the whole world is having a break too. Similarly, Sunday is actually a working day in Middle Eastern countries.
Well, there’s a fact I must admit. I still don’t have the family commitment, yet. And thus I’m able to do something that most others are not able to.
I am a believer in taking the path least taken. The world is fair. With the assumption that there’s always something for everyone, the path least taken has less competitors (supposedly), and thus yielding higher success rate.
I’m not yet (yup, just not yet, but will be) a successful entrepreneur to talk or write about the philosophical statements related to entrepreneurship and personal development. But, I believe that, there are a lot other people out there, of whom, if given choice, would want to have the chance to do what a young man/woman could! In other words, to put it in a less diplomatic description, there are a lot people who regret of not taking the path least taken while they had less commitment in life.
Not everyone is born with all traits required for a successful career. Before the CNY break, I had dinner with a friend of mine. The superior who brought her into the company 5 years ago, was holding a managerial post. But 5 years later today, that superior is no longer her superior; but she’s now at the same managerial level as the person who hired her into the company. She told me something that is very inspiring!
I’m not a smart person with high quotient of intelligence. So I have to put in more efforts, doing things that others are reluctant to do, to compensate the disadvantage that I have.
While you can, take the path least taken!
2011
Oracle and Java
Last week, OMGUbuntu published an article titled “Java To Be Removed from Ubuntu, Uninstalled from User Machines”. The computer industry veteran Simon Phipps commented that “Java is not being removed from Ubuntu. OpenJDK is the open source version Java, is developed primarily by Oracle, is becoming the reference implementation and is available in Ubuntu”.
After Oracle’s acquisition of Sun, the fate of Java remains as one of the most watched-after issues among the enterprise computing veterans. And Oracle’s move to put the spotlight on OpenJDK, is a very important one for the continuity of Java in the enterprise space. My article today on e27 has the details.
2011
Over Time Stärker Dunkel – Not Good Enough
The chain of Over Time pubs is growing rapidly like nobody’s business in Malaysia, significantly since last year. Instead of serving imported beers, Over Time produces their own German-style brews in Jaz Brewery, branded as Stärker, and priced at the range of imported German beer (in fact, slightly above average during non happy hours). But Over Time has some advantages over other competitors — being locally brewed, the draught is definitely fresher than any German beer you can import; and, Stärker Lager is very good!
In conjunction with this year’s Oktoberfest, Over Time launched a new beer – Stärker Dunkel. Besides Guinness draught, Dunkel is another style of beer that I really love and enjoy. Erdinger Dunkel, Paulaner Dunkel, Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse Dunkel … oh man, I’m anytime ready for these.
And that explains why, I was looking forward to try Over Time’s Stärker Dunkel when this new beer was launched. In fact, my business partner George is also another Dunkel lover.
My first attempt was at the new Over Time pub in First Subang, but was told “sold out”. Second attempt at the Over Time in Tropicana City Mall, but same result — “sold out”. Today, I tried my luck at the branch in Pavilion Mall, and I have finally managed to taste it. Read more >>
2011
Where Has The “Retweets” Tab Gone From New Twitter?
Ever since Twitter introduced the Activity tab to Twitter.com, the realtime activity streams have replaced the “Retweets” tab.
I was wondering where is has gone, and I thought it was gone.
Until just now, when I clicked at the @username tab (replacing the @Mentions tab), and I realized the contents in this tab has been enhanced! It doesn’t just show the mentions and replies, but also things like when:
- someone follows you
- someone favorites one of your tweets
- someone retweets one of your tweets
- when someone adds you to a list
So, now I got my the answer. “Your Tweets, retweeted” has gone into the @username tab.
2011
Open Source as a Viable Business Model
Yesterday I was at BarCamp KL 2011, held in Multimedia University, the Cyberjaya campus. Quite a couple of regular visitors at the techie community events in Kuala Lumpur have already heard about Joget Workflow. So, instead of presenting about what Joget Workflow is, I shared my experience gained from Open Dynamics (the company that founded and manages Joget Workflow), on the open source business model.
Thanks to all who have voted for this topic at BarCamp KL. At least, the efforts that I put in to prepare the slides, a day before BarCamp, is fruitful.
In fact, “how you all make money” is the question that I was asked at all events. Some people are simply curious about the open source business model, while some potential adopters of Joget Workflow are simply doubtful about our commitment to continue developing this project, as the financial aspect is not sustainable.
As Simon Phipps pointed out in his article titled “Paying at the Point of Value“:
Open source on the deployer side of the glass is the shift to payment at the point of value instead of at the point of acquisition of the bits.
So, the key point in the monetization part of open source business model, is about what you can offer to the customers who know value, and willing to pay for values. As described in my slides, if an open source software has recorded xxx,xxx downloads, it might have y,yyy adopters. And among the y,yyy implementations, there are nnn customers who are willing to pay at the point of value. So, what values do you offer to the nnn customers?
I’m using Jaspersoft‘s JasperReports as a concrete example in my presentation, using conservative conversion rate to explain the business model. I hope Brian Gentile doesn’t mind about the mention ;)
It’s all about numbers and the conversion rate. And, historically proven by successful models, the open source business model is not only viable, but scalable as well. The software ecosystem is always made up of people who are willing to pay, and people who won’t pay no matter what you do. Similarly, to the iOS developers, there are people like me who don’t mind paying for quality iOS apps, but they are also users who will jailbreak his/her iOS regardless of the opportunity cost.