Bjorno.licio.us

Tahoe. Ski. Parties. Booze. Just Bring Yourself.

I was just reading a new friend (Mohammad Musa)’s blog and decided to blog about something i totally agree with and understand.

“”If you find yourself talking more than walking, shut up, cut the vision in half, and launch it. You can always fill in the gaps later. In fact, you’ll know more about what gaps need to be filled after you’ve launched “half a feature” than if you tried to fill them in before launching anything.”

I think it was Newton’s First Law or some physical law i studied before (I am not an engineer, and am lazy to check wikipedia) that theorized about inertia and the significant physical force required to overcome it. I am glad i snapped out of my inertia and am working on something (anything!) now. It feels great to be DOING something for a change instead of hypothesizing and rambling on about it without any commitment.

Arnie’s getting crap from Europeans for California’s decision to execute crook Stanley Tookie Williams (convicted killer and co-founder of Crips gang). Doesn’t this mirror the Australian outcry when Singapore decided to execute another crook in Nguyen Van Tuong for drug smuggling? The Pope and his cronies are shouting out for respect of human dignity and right to redemption. Suddenly, we witness mass amnesia and the type of selective justice again demanded by certain sectors of our society. For crying out loud, THESE GUYS COMMITTED SERIOUS CRIMES.

Here’s what i thought was funny:

“Rome’s Colosseum, once the arena for deadly gladiator combat and executions, has become a symbol of Italy’s anti-death penalty stance. Since 1999, the monument has been bathed in golden light every time a death sentence is commuted somewhere in the world or a country abolishes capital punishment.”

Are we kidding here? The Colosseum is not too far from where Caesar and his other Roman warriors once thrived. I bet they are turning in their graves at the follies of their descendants right now. I might appear to be in favor of capital punishment but i also am willing to compromise on the circumstances it should be practised. We need a strong deterrent for hardcore criminals. If we believe in the independency and effectiveness of judicial systems, we should trust them with the responsibility of purging society of our wayward citizens and upholding the sacred role of maintaining order in mainstream society. This is not because I do not believe that these criminals cannot be reformed, they might. But we also have to realize the importance of sending out a message to the rest of society, particularly those who endanger the majority, that there is zero tolerance for certain crimes.

I thought this topped the list:

“In Schwarzenegger’s hometown of Graz, local Greens said they would file a petition to remove his name from the southern city’s sports stadium. A Christian political group went even further, suggesting it be renamed the “Stanley Tookie Williams Stadium.”"

Sure, name it Stanley Tookie Williams Stadium, I thought some sectors of society could go no lower but I am wrong. Perhaps some political group, (where’s Hansen-clones in Aussie?) could name some street or monument after Nguyen Van Tuong and join the Austrians in the “Hall of Shame” for celebrity crooks. They can commercialize this and make it a tourism attraction. I can visualize it. Let me attempt.

“From Australia to Austria — United in Our Celebration of Shame”.

Bear Stearns on Google
Here’s news on monetization moves by Google, through its hiring trends, on Google Video.

Cheesecake Factory on a Roll
Cheesecake Factory diversifys its revenue model. Click here.

Treo 650 Voted Best Converged Device.. Again
Head-to-head, Treo 650 beat the RIM BlackBerry 7100, the Samsung SCH-i730 and the UTStarcomm PPC6600. Click here.

Amazon Opens Up Alexa
Inexpensive access to an industrial-scale web crawler avaliable to any Google-wannabe… 100 terabytes of data at instant disposal. Siliconbeat is reporting on it too. And for the original link from Yahoo! News, click here.

Blog Network Rankings
From Mike Arrington’s TechCrunch., one of the blogs i read religiously everyday if i get the time.

For the article, click here.

Random Blogs:
Joel on Software
Delivering web experiences

Read blogs.
Never follow market convention. Wait for the market blowout, then invest. (NOT the other way round)

Read here.

Another indian city’s name bites the dust.

India — world’s 2ndlargest economy in the future, changes the name of yet another of its cities again. Say bye to the global capital of Bangalore and hi to Bengalaru or “town of boiled beans”.

From Madras to Chennai, Bombay to Mumbai, Calbutta to Kolkata, we should be braced for a tsunami of name changes from this country.

For more, click here.

Something I saw off Xooglers They have a pretty good blog there recounting their experiences from the GREATEST COMPANY ON EARTH (trying to get a job there, haha)

Eric Schmidt (CEO GOOG) and this dude called Hal Varian came up with 10 Golden RUles for ruling knowledge workers such as those at Planet Google. The link is here, but since i read my own blog ‘cos i use it as a repository of sorts, i will write down the rules here:

• Hire by committee./ 360-degree interview method
• Cater to their every need.
• Pack them in./ Spatial proximity of workers
• Make coordination easy./ Mailing your work group
• Eat your own dog food./ Use your own products.
  
• Encourage creativity./ 20 % personal time
• Strive to reach consensus.
• Don’t be evil.
• Data drive decisions.
• Communicate effectively.

Something else here from Xooglers: “I knew the flavor of leadership that would not proceed without consensus, and I knew the flavor of leadership that weighed unpopular decisions before cautiously stepping forward to test the waters in some limited fashion. I had not experienced leadership infused with such heartfelt conviction that united opposition was simply brushed aside and the risk fully embraced without fear or hesitation.”

3 different leadership models are articulated here:
The Dictator — No consensus nor opinion-soliciting from underlings. Authoritarian “My-word-is-law” concept.
The Diplomat — Everyone has their say, everybody feels part of the decision-making process. The aim is to make everyone happy but the reality is everyone is NOT due to dilution of opinions and a weak compromise that seeks to pass off as a concensual collection decision. Leadership is weak here, i regard this as pure democracy where the leader looks spineless.
The Visionary — For lack of a better word. There is sufficient feedback collected, there is exchange of intellectual perspectives resulting in a very comprehensive understanding achieved by all parties leading to a decision juncture, required by the leader. The leader is one that commands respect from his team members (owing to some distinguishing character trait or academic pedigree), who retain varying degrees of faith in the leader despite any opinion differences and importantly, any variant decision eventually made. I prefer this sort of leadership. A culture that encourages multilateral consensus-seeking process but tolerates unilateral decision-making by an opinion-leader.

Here’s a blog on social networks I enjoyed.

Beginning to slowly realize that blogs in Singapore are increasingly being criticised by the establishment. Sedition Act, Dawn Yang, Daphne Teo. (putting in top keywords so this post might be picked up by Technorati and other blog search engines, might have to take down this post because of heightened profile, hence proving my point)

I was reading this blog which referenced an article from The New Paper. The newspaper article talked about the cluelessness of Singaporean bloggers who did not understand the implications of their blogging habits. The article did not portray blogs as tools of personal expression but instead subtly focused on the naivety and immaturity of bloggers. I see this as an insidious implication that bloggers should be clamped down on, again with relation to the Sedition Act, as dangerous propaganda machines that have highly negative influences on public opinion. There is this other article highlighting the negative effects of a teacher’s blog who had chosen to parody her students’ mistakes on her blog. This teacher had intended her blog to be fun and educational (?) and adopt a humoristic stance. A straw poll was then conducted (by The New Paper? not clear in the article) on a statistically inaccurate sample size to prove that no one agreed with the teacher’s opinions on her blog.

What is the New Paper trying to prove with articles like that? A simple search with the keyword “blog” on The New Paper main page throws up many articles with a majority putting down blogs. Now, The New Paper has a responsibility to educating a majority of Singaporeans that constitute its high readership audience, by portraying blogs in such a bad light, it does not help in fostering a favorable impression of blogs, particularly in the context of bloggers being prosecuted under Sedition Acts and such by thre government. IS The New Paper toeing the government line? IS ourSingaporean media really taking such a pro-government stance, based on the ideology of their articles, none of which seek to provide an alternative, balanced perspective of how blogs are beneficial to general society?

In SIlicon Valley, blogs like Siliconbeat.com, Techcrunch, YPulse, that profiles teen trends in America, are all very successful examples of how blogs have been used to benefit entrepreneurs, investors, tech enthusiasts, corporate marketers et al.. Granted, for every good blog like that, there are thousands of blogs that gravitate to the other extreme in terms of social benefit. So? For Singapore to be engaged in a increasingly booming consumer Internet industry/ Web 2.0, blogs will form an integral part of this new economic engine. It does make sense to educate Singaporeans on how blogging is practised benefically and commercially in other countries and not just focus on the unsavory aspects of it.

In many Asian countries, Singapore included, the Internet industry is very undeveloped, there needs to exist a massive education drive that could be spearheaded by mainstream media like newspapers that still have great influence in society. Newspapers need to embrace new technology and new internet habits, not fear it and put it down. To me, the newspaper articles mentioned above do not show a media establishment that understands its role in society nor an open attitude towards new ideas (such as blogging).

Flame me if I am wrong, but do not reply me to ask me to remove my post. I believe blogs are an outlet for expression of independent thought. If Singapore is to aspire to become a mature society, in line with our economically advanced status, we have to be exposed to alternative ideas and thoughts of the countless individuals in the world,that broaden our view of the world, let the readers individually judge my piece, but let not one party decide what’s good and what’s bad for the majority.

I have been looking for an image to describe the place I live in. This comes real close.

Silicon Valley - where geekdom rules and software can replace sex??? (wtf!?!) Too many hours with the computer makes you think you wife IS your computer.

I prefer the other “Silicon Valley” down in LA/ San Fernando, where silicon goes into humans anot not computers. lolz