ThinkingNectar

Was browsing Slashdot for my daily dose of geeky news and saw this.

Click to view the full image

Nicely done from this article which I doubt anyone of the readers will see the same ad again.

Makes me want to sign up for a 5 years membership and have some benefits to some club house which I will hardly use. For those overseas readers, Safra is known as the Singapore Armed Forces Recreation Association.

And ironically, at the time of posting, safra.sg is down. Speaking of the Slashdot effect!

Anyway, the really cool thing about Safra is their Futsal pitch at Safra Tampines.

I will not steal the thunder from e27 and give away the name of the representative who will represent Singapore for Yahoo Open Hack Day 2008. But I think the process is a blog worthy given the many discussion I had with Adrian.

First of all, the application. Certain questions are good for lengthy geeky discussion and many a times, great opportunity to throw in geeky jokes and maybe some Microsoft bashing here and there. Many thanks for Adrian for his input on how he might had answered some questions.

FIrst, the money question:

Why I want to experience Yahoo! Open Hack Day (100 words or less)

This was not that difficult or that easy to answer. To be truthful, I go no way to start and hence:

Cos my Kung Fu is best! And can be better!

Adrian managed to one upped (in a funny way):

Cos I did not qualify for Google Code Jam… …

He was trying to be funny and he did went as far as third round.

Second,

if you could ask David Filo one question, what will it be?

I went:

How does it feel to be the number two of a number two company? (laughs) Just kidding! Actual question was to ask him what is he going to do with delicious.com given that Yahoo do not seems to be monetizing it.

And Adrian went:

How does it feel not to have bought Google? (laughs)

The third question was:

Name 3 technologies you think will be relevant in 2015 and why?

I shot off the hip with PHP (duct tape will remain useful no matter what), Java (legacy language of yesteryears enterprise solution) and C (the new assembly). I added anti-spam in all medium as a bonus for this question.

Not that I have anything against Java.

Personally this reflect the narrow view I have went it comes to technologies. Should be reading more on other technological domain other than computing!

Next, the ugly sister of the above question:

Name 3 technologies you think will be irrelevant in 2015 and why?

Again, I shot off the hip with Cloud Computing (I am not confident that it can survie any security audit, but I could be wrong) and DRM in music. I cheated here as frankly I can think of 2 when I filled up the form.

Typewriter was Adrian’s input. Quick sharp and makes me smack my forehead.

The next big money question:

What will be the next big trend (killer app) that will impact innovation on the web?

This requires some thinking and I returned with a online property management app. And property does not mean landed, but online asset. Looking back, I think is a rather weak concept.

I have to say I do enjoy the filling up the application form and did throw in some funny lines with it. Hope the guys at e27 and Yahoo Singapore have a good laugh.

Software Freedom Day Singapore will be held on the 20th of September 2008. The event will be from 10AM to 5PM at SMU, School of Information Systems. More information can be found at the the SoftwareFeedomDay.sg.

What is in store?

Exhibits Fifteen booths will be set up in the Multipurpose Room on the 5th floor of the School of Information Systems building. These booths will be staffed by sponsors and FOSS experts to answer your questions and demonstrate FOSS applications and systems. More information is available on the Exhibits page.

Visitors could be looking forward to see some local companies that utilise Open Source Software, or provide commercial support for Open Source Software.

For those who want to know more, please check it out with the nice people from the Singapore Linux Meetup group.

Interestingly, Microsoft is holding their Mash-it-up competition on the same day, and I believe also at SMU.

And also, I place a plug for my good friend, Adrian who just gotten his OpenMoko iPhone Phone. Dude, you can finally say FIRST!

It just seems that Singapore is getting more and more pro-business. Looking at the latest news Changes planned to allow 18 years old to go into business, it seems that we are going to get younger and younger business owners.

Plans have been laid out to make it easier for young entrepreneurs to go into business.

The Finance Ministry is proposing a delinking of the age of majority from the age of contractual capacity, reducing the age from 21 years to 18 years.

The move is the result of feedback received by the Pro-Enterprise Panel that legal barriers that prevent young people from starting and conducting a business should be removed.

The change will, however, require the amendment of a host of other laws, and the Civil Law Act which the Finance and Law ministries have drafted amendments to.

The proposed policy is still under consultation and I believe it is a positive step forward for the local start-up ecosystem. It gives younger people the legal space to start a business. Most importantly, it signals to young adults that they can strike out early. Of course it should do the economy some good with younger people striking out early and enaging the different type of legal, accounting and logistics services that comes with starting a new business.

On a pragmatic note, younger people have lesser opportunity cost as compared to new graduates or undergraduates. Their perceived earning power is lower (at age 18 to 21) and hence, will have a lower perceived opportunity cost also.

From the government point of view, it gives good signs to people that it is changing its legal framework to help younger people to start a business. Starting out a business is surely one of the most enriching experience anyone can have. The learning experience, together with the must do mentality will be very useful in life. Not to mention the appreciate of money, hard work and human relationship that is part and parcel of starting a business.

Beyond the rosy portion, lowering the starting age to 18 could have several issue. One of which is National Service. Young able bodied Singapore man have to undergo National Service. And from what I understand, those on Reservist can be deferred if they start a business within 6 months of their Reservist duties. So looking at National Service at age of 18, what will the direction be when 2 different priorities of the national comes into contention?

Should protecting the national comes before building a better future for oneself? Artistic, talented and scholarly young adults can get deferment for studies. And when it comes to business, the window of opportunity for success could be even more passing.

Picture a scenario should a capable (if not fortunate) young man managed to secure a deal that requires his business and services overseas. And he is to be called up for National Service. How would such a scenario resolve? Question here is where will the line be drawn between the young business owners and their National Service obligation?

Also, starting a business at young age will surely require certain form of capital. And if deferment is allowed because of any enterprising initiative by some young men, what guidelines are put in place so that no one abuse the system?

Moving beyond National Service. The idea of having business experience replacing university activities in students resume gotten my imagination. So if more students in the local campus run companies and conduct business instead of spending their effort in university activities, who benefit?  The students will benefit from more impressive resumes, and the economy benefit from paid transaction and effort. Student run university activities does not pay students for their time and effort while business based efforts does.

For someone who do not really watch TV (other than the news in the morning, soccer and Boston Legal if they ever show it again), the recent M1 Commercials did leave a impression on me. Partly because it will pretty short and silly, but mainly it is because of the first guy on the right acting as one of the 3 “funny executives”.

Take a look here (Moving Pockets):

And here (Sharing Multi-Mug):

And Here (Talking Plant):

And the last clip which did not get that much air time:

So did anyone notice that the 3 funny executives were wearing green and red strips tie? And the following:

In Moving Pocket Fashion, the model was wearing all red.

In Sharing Multi-Mug, the 3 handles mug was first in green and then the 4 handles mug was in red.

In Talking Plant, the plant was colored green with really red lips.

In the last clip, there were nothing much, less that the funny executives were using red pens.

But back to the first executive on the right. I mean, where do the producers find such a character? He seems to really enjoy himself and is really into the role. They should have an award for him!

And to think that M1 dares to pull off such a mocking stunt, I appreciate the good laugh. Some may think it is silly, my say is that it is creative. So creative that I am giving M1 free publicity.

Many should have known by now that I recently took up the position of a project manager at a local major media company. And I have since been away from actual coding for close to a month. This experience offers me a chance to reflect on the web development experience I had and comparing to the team that is working with me at the moment.

The question is simple, what are the things that you look for in a web developer?

So I pull out the ever trusty Google and the big G returns this: Top 10 traits of a Rockstar Software Engineer.

And to summarise a wonderful read we have the following:

1. Loves To Code
2. Gets Things Done
3. Continuously Refactors Code
4. Uses Design Patterns
5. Writes Tests
6. Leverages Existing Code
7. Focuses on Usability
8. Writes Maintainable Code
9. Can Code in Any Language
10. Knows Basic Computer Science

Looking at the list, and knowing that web development is a subset of software engineering, the list must apply for web development.

But moving forward, web developers do requires some extra traits that will make them outstanding. And I will more than happy to share my experience on this:

Ability to appreciate the whole infrastructure stack and the capabilities of each component

This is a hard one to explain by I will do my best to define this. In web development, the platform is at the choice of the system architect. In other words, someone will have the choice and have to make a choice of running the application on a linux (which ever distribution also) or windows system, to pick the scripting language and the corresponding framework. And lastly to select whichever persistent storage (database) that talent, time and budget allows.

Given this permutation of infrastructure, a single application can take on many different implmentation. Take for example for a (over) simple page that requires basic authentication. Only one non-business critical page. One might implement a login form with the scripting language of choice while another might just use Htaccess to control the access to the page.

The infrastructure will provide either an elegant solution to certain problem if well utilised, or a less optimal hack should the web developer not appreciate the capabilities of each component.

Understand Web Analytics

Feedback is every important in web applications. And nothing speaks clearer than hard cold data about both user behavior and system behavior.

An eye for metrics and optimization

This trait was very obvious in a colleague who I was very fortunate to work with. He talk in numbers for features. And he will propose a metric for any new feature roll out. This very act helps to streamline features roll out and offers a common understanding among the team what works and what do not.

And the metrics also comes in 2 forms. The business metric and the system metrics. New features may consume more system resources and hence affect the rest of the site. This is system metrics. While business metrics are for example revenue generated, visitor interaction on the new feature etc.

And with metrics comes optimization. Optimization can again come in 2 forms. Optimization of business flow and optimzation of system resources. Business flow will normally encompass the changes in forms, fields to fill in and maybe changes in layout. While optimization of system resources will include changes to the way certain feature are implemented.

A common feature among most sites is a most popular article page. It makes business sense to have sure a feature as it improve user experience. Everyone want to know what is popular on the site. But such a feature may be resource intensive as the counting will take but system resources (database connection for example). So a way to manage this is to have a pseudo most popular article page where the count is to be updated maybe once every 5 minutes instead of every page call.

Appreciate Stupidity

It is the nature of web developer or software engineer to be fiercely intelligent people. And intelligent people, well, tend to not appreciate stupidity. And when it comes to web development, you get all kind of visitors.

Some might misuse your form totally, some might fail to login simple because they had not enabled Javascript and they do not know how to. While others, let me just say they are still on Pentium 3 running windows 95 with IE 3 and trying to log into your shining web 2.0 site.

That sums up the list I have so far. I will add more when it comes to me. Of course, a non-trait of any developer is to have sweaty armpits and jumping around shouting developers, developers, developers, developers,

A wise man did say this and if I may quote him:

If you can’t think because you can’t chew, try a banana

And yes, you may have to dig a little to know who said that first.

This is a follow up post to the breakout session that I was in, following the keynote presentation and different startup pitches that follows in the recent Unconference 2008.

What makes attend this breakout was the fact that I love money, but seriously, it was a good opportunity to hear from Bernard who was the moderator (I am not sure if this is the correct term) of the breakout. I for one had been part of a startup that was fuelled by funds from family, friends and fools. Actually we have private investors (one of the fs) who took some equity to fund the development phase.

I skip the textbook stuff of having a business model, sound marketing plan and superb team before looking for funding. I will in fact focus on an issue raised by Bernard (as posted in his blog too!)

Young Singapore Entrepreneurs don’t care about Execution Risk

This strikes me, as that was an issue that was way too obvious to me from day one. Execution risk is very real. Yes, there may be an outstanding idea, coupled with great and intelligent people, but there are still execution risk. The issue raised by Bernard is that entrepreneurs asked too much from low end fundings.

I was fortunate to be in a startup that can generate revenue from day one of launch. Hence our risk was slightly lower as the team can partially roll on itself from launch. The risk that the investor beared totally was for development and some marketing expenses. Looking at some startup around, most have to determine on advertising revenues while other paying customers who takes up the premium services. While I do not know which startups are made to be sold, I do have this impression that most local startup owners do not want to sell their shares.

So looking at asking too much. Most low end funds request an exchange of equity for cash. Something that is reasonable. But Bernard experiences shows that entrepreneurs are not too keen to give up the equity.

I was asked by Bernard during the breakout and my take if I was running a new startup again from ground zero, I take any fair deal for funding when I do not have a product. When there is just an idea and no product, the money have to some from somewhere. Money should be a secondary issue during development. And secondly, start the VC game early. Know and network some players from start. Do not expect to know anyone for a week and expect funding when you ask. Relationship takes time to build.

Take fair funding for equity for your developers

I am talking about web companies here. Developers are human and they deserve the respect for their dedication to the Art of the Bytes. Get the money, give them a decent allowance and keep their environment pro-developer. I learnt that morale is an important factor in meeting deadlines and releases. And having cash is essential to buying the simple comforts that makes everyone happy. I am not taking about slurping on video cards or anything like that, but a simple pantry fund is important for the flow of coffee and snacks. A decent chair to keep the spine happy.

Take the funding for breathing space

Buffer, buffer, buffer. Datelines will be missed. Sales target will be missed. Product will change and people might leave. You are taking all the risk in the time and effort and opportunity cost. Let someone else share some burden too.

Take the funding and start running the show

Execute the idea, get the developers working and let the valuation take care of itself in the long run. Honestly it the startup grows large enough, everyone will be happy. And of course, development speed is of the essence.

My stand is very clear. I take the funding if I just have an idea. Even If I have a product, I will still take the funding as I have invested effort and time into it and will more than happy to insure the life span of the product.

Here is the second installation of the startup pitches of Unconference 2008. I had covered the Keynote address and the first 5 startups. Here is the rest of the startup pitches:

Podfire.sg

Podfire.sg is by a good friend of mine, Michael Cheng. The tagline:

Singapore’s Premier Video Podcast Network

In as little word as possible, Podfire.sg is a production house for video podcast. It also offers turnkey video podcast solution for corporates. The site came about because Michael notice a shortage of well produced pan-asian content. Hence the production house concept where producers can create content and have Podfire.sg services to handle the post production. Hope I did not get this wrong.

Currently under podfire.sg, there are The Geek Goddess Show, Small Girl. Big Appetite! and It’s a Dog’s Life.

Also, he is always looking for content ideas!

Zopim.com

Zopim.com is a interactive communication platform for online business and organisation. The service aims to increase the level of interaction in the websites between visitors and site owners.

In addition, ZopIm can integrate a profiling feature that tracks customer’s behaviour on the site. For example which search term the user had entered and which pages the user have visited.

The presentation also showed qisahn.com as a client of zopim.com. Get cheap gaming consoles and games from qisahn.com

Qweki.com

Sam Wong presented for Qweki. It is essentially a search engine that allows the end user to influence the search results. Maybe influence was not the correct word. The end user can improve the search results with their input. It is also a unique search for content integration, a term which I do not comprehen.

Patsnap.com

Patsnap.com is a patent search engine. A very good concept from what I know. For those who had ever read a patent document, the words are almost painful to read and understand. And more often than not, the wordings in the patent does not reflect the actual end product, as least directly. Patsnap aims to make patent search easier by relating the common search terms to the actual patent documents.

I am impressed by the idea and the implementation of the concept was pretty well done. And for those who never read a patent document before, go ahead and read one. Try checking out the vuestar patents for a start!

Side note: Patsnap sites appears to be sitting on CakePHP.

Hibernater

Hibenater is a interesting service. It simply take a snapshot of the current work and work space and store in online. The user can shutdown the system, on the someplace, sometime else and restore the previous working snapshot, all from a desktop exe. It cuts down on the overhead of copying files into a thumbdrive or storing via email. And it is configurable.

That sums up the startup pitches for unconference 2008. Take a second look at the startups over at youngupstarts.com

The startup pitches follows the keynote address. And there were plenty of pitches and it was good that members of the audience did manage to see the demos in the common area before hand else the pitches may be too much to absorb.

gothere.sg

gothere.sg is a simple mapping and directions service. Registered as a partnership with 3 people and the live site is 3 months old. Previous knowledge from interacting with the developers points to a development length of about 3 months which I guess was part time.

The site was fast and the presenter stated it was their priorty that the site be speedy, with good user experience and simplicity was key. The demo consist of a simple search from point A to point B, via train, bus and car. With the car directions having a ERP avoidance feature. Sweet.

Scratone

Scratone is simple product. But I believe the technology behind it is not that simple. In short it is a service that allows anyone to upload a background music, add a voice or a speech, and it will render a hip-hop style of voice ringtone.

This meet the need for professional music in a short time. Why ringtone? People uses ringtone to express individuality and to exploit creativity.

The presenter, Simon Wun is a musician and computer science major. The engine behind scratone is AutoDJ and it seems to be a A*Star project. And he did made a really interesting comment:

Government wants to encourage creativity, but creative people are not interested in politics and are rebellious.

Homespace.sg

Homespace.sg should need no much introduction. They too presented in the previous barcamp event. They are a pro-consumer, map based search engine. The latest feature to be added on their side, according to Vinod, is a price trend of recent transaction of similar units in a selected area. Useful for buyer or seller to make informed decision.

In addition, they are able to list amentities details in a particular neighbourhood to the end user as there are property agents who list their properties with simply: View to Offer.

Widgeo.us

Widgeo.us also do not need much introduction. They launch their service, again, in the previous barcamp event.

Their service cannot be easily described but I do my best. A unified communication platform whereby the user can be communicate by the medium of his choice without limitation of which ever different meduim that the other party is using. And when meduim is concernt, it means email, the different instant messaging services, SMS, the different social network messaging system and of course twitter.

In short:

Putting the power of communication back to the user

And Rid and Uzyn used this pitch to plug for their upcoming 24hours hackathon. Sign up an account at their site to find out more.

Phlook.com

Phlook.com is a photosharing site. Their values lies in their story boarding feature, where users can upload pictures into albums and use the pictures to be arranged as a story. The story can then tells the experience of the photographer or the entities in the pictures.

In addition, Phlook.com also have a zoom in feature, for those high resolution pictures.

This round up part one of 5 pitches. Do check out the next 5 startup pitches.