This site will give you an idea on how many web 2.0 applications are there. Is quite an impressive list .. ;-p
http://www.go2web20.net/
Collection of Web 2.0 applications
July 5th, 2009 by xiao baiIncidents that happened 20 yrs ago
June 3rd, 2009 by xiao baiThis blog was inspired by the Tiananmen Square Massacre and the June 4th incident which happened in 1989. It marks the change of the fate of China from there onwards ( China closed its door to the rest of the world).
Would all these incidents which happened about 20 years ago have a different turnout if Internet was so easily access by everyone?
1) Fall of Berlin Wall
2) Chinese pro-Democracy demonstrators and students massacred in Tiananmen Square
3) Communist regimes in Eastern Europe collapse
4) Nelson Mandela released from prison in South Africa
5) New Plague Identified as AIDS
6) Wreck of the Titanic Found
7) Personal Computers (PC) Introduced by IBM
Hole in the Ozone Layer Discovered
I’m confused
May 16th, 2009 by xiao baiClients : ” My Boss is a visual person, so we need to produce all the pages so that she can comment on.”
Me ( voice in my head ) : “Visual person ? But want to see all the pages in proper layout?”
Am i misinterpreting the statement here? If he/she is a visual person, aren’t that suppose to mean that they can visualize the output of the creative?
Designers vs Programmers
April 25th, 2009 by xiao baiBeing in a company where designers and programmers are needed to be closely integrated is always been a challenge. These are the 2 different group of people whom are on the extreme end in terms of character. Most people would feel that designers need to have an vast amount of creative space to foster creative ideas, whereas programmers need to have a quiet and peaceful ambience in order to come up with logical coding.
Sitting on the fence most of the time, is always difficult to pull the 2 teams together and see eye to eye and coming up with a complete product ( in our cases product are referred as website). Why? Cause designers are concerned that their designs being executed perfectly whereas programmers are concerned in ensuring that their coding are flawless. So this leads to different focus and expectation when comes to execution of a project. In summary, this is how i see ; For designers, their focus can be grouped into; Concept, Branding, Asethetics and Usability. For programmers, their focus are Code Efficiency, Optimization, Functionality and Logic.
So where is the commonality between these 2 groups?
I remembered last week when the boss ask me what is the ‘Core Value of TAC’, after thinking for about 10 mins, i told him is to come up with a good solution to resolve client’s problem. And suddenly this struck me as a commonality between these 2 group of extremist. Aren’t we exist to help client to resolve their problem, be it is it a simple edm or an enterprise system. We exist to help people with problem and in return they gave us a chance to demonstrate our innovative solution. So it doesn’t matter are you a prgrammer or designer what matters is the outcome of the solution should be well thought of be it from a creative or logical approach. The next question would be, is this even possbile? Well, comes to think abou it it does happen subconsiously without our notice.
Designers when executing their ideas, will be concern on user focus and content proportion :
1) Should it be 70/30 or 50/50 in terms of the layout?
2) Browser resolution, is it 1024 x 768 or 800 x 60o?
3) Should the content contains 10o words or 500 words?
4) What should the gap be in between different set of content on the same page, is it a single line spacing or a para break
Aren’t all these logical approach?
Programmers when coming up with functionality, will look at code efficiency and correct output:
1) What is the purpose of the functions?
2) Should the date be presented it a random or in sequential approach?
3) How should we design our coding, should a features be in classes or function?
4) Wouldn’t it be a piece of art if the coding is just a few liner to solve a problem?
Aren’t all these non-logical approach?
Conclusion, whichever role you are playing in the company, you’ll need to equip with both creative and logical approach. Cause only with these, then the proposed solution would be considered as a well thought and complete.
Photos of QD’s office
April 19th, 2009 by xiao baiEveryone, these are some photos of the QD’s office
Stack Overflow
April 11th, 2009 by xiao baiFor most of the programmers out there, i’m sure you would encountered this error called stack overflow.
During one of the days in QD, went to shop for office funrnitures. And these are the items that were bought - 6 computer tables, 3 tables, 1 coffe tables, 10 chairs, 4 side drawers and 2 sleeping sofas. This is how they stack all the items into 1 mini lorry
This is how i would describe in a programmatic way :
The declared array consumes more memory than is available on the stack.
int main(void) {
double n[10000000];
return 0;
}
Amazingly, all these was safely delivered to us without any ” error or warning”. Come to think about it , maybe for all browsers there should be a better deal with stack overflow error.
2nd week in Qingdao
April 10th, 2009 by xiao baiThis is almost my 2nd week in China - Qingdao. In general is quite a nice place, surprising clean and ‘cooling’. Well, if you can take the wind blowing at you, walking along the street with only 1 jacket and 1 jean at 0 degrees, not to mention limping on 1 leg.
1 important lesson learnt. Never ever come to China if your foot is injured. Why? Crossing the road is a hazard. I don’t understand their traffic signal at all. Though it appears as green man but the car can still drive through and horn you for blocking their path. The worst is i can’t run fast enough so end up go to limp and jump. End up looking quite clown.
Here are the list of chinese words that i have learnt during this week. Purely related to our industry :
- Browser : 游览器
- Preview：预览
- Operating System：操作系统
- Server：服务器
- Router : 路由器
- Switch : 转换器
- Codes : 代码
- Programming : 篇呈
- Navigation : 导行
- Drop down menu : 下拉菜单
- Framework：框格
- Web Banners : 浮动广告
- Webpages : 网页
- Websites : 网站
- EDM : 电子直邮
- Web Development : 网站开发
- Object-Oriented ：面向对象
- HTML Tags : 标签
- Attributes：属性
- Function：函数
- Variables : 变量
- Database : 数据库
- Broadband : 宽带
- Upload : 上载
- Download : 下传
- Prototype : 样板
- Templates：模板
- Testing：测试
Actually as I was typing out the above, just thinking in the world of programming is also the same. Is the programmer preference to choose which language where he/she can best execute the problem. The most important is short and to the point.
That’s all for today session on ‘ 大家学华语黄金时段‘
Is all about managing …
March 29th, 2009 by xiao baiNot too sure if anyone disagree in this - Life is all about managing expectations. Let’s see :
At home, you’ll need to manage your parents, siblings, spouses and sometimes even your pet. At work, you’ll need to manage your bosses, colleagues and clients. However the most difficult person to manage the expectation is actually yourself, cause you got to deal with your own desire and emotions.
In my daily working life, one of the main responsibility is to manage client’s expectation. So far in my experience dealing with projects and client, these are a few basic rules which i feel needs to be done in order to manage client’s expectation:
- Pre-warn them if the project is not meeting the deadline. At most you’ll be scolded instantly but overall in the longer run it will be better in terms of the relationship with them
- Always be prepare to tell them the worst case scenarios and have a solution for it
- Be upfront with them if there will be cost incurred. This is so that they are prepared for it and ready to negotiate with you. Which normally end up in a win-win situation for both parties
- Update them on the progress of the project so that they will be kept in the loop so that they will have an expectation of the output
- If their agitated due to some other reason, just be patience with them. And be ready to admit your fault
- Think 2 steps ahead of them.
- If not sure on their requirement, make sure you ask clearly. It’s always good to clarify doubts then to act you know and end up is not what they want
- Always be prepare with all the neccessary project documents when you meet the client so that they would feel you’re professional and putting in effort in their project
- Lastly, always follow up with the clients and close of any outstanding issue. Do not leave open issue
That’s what i have for now till there are new enlightenments in the later part of my life!
User Interface in Movies
March 22nd, 2009 by xiao baiMany times i was impressed by the gadgets and widgets that were shown in a movies. And i can’t stop wondering, where did they get the idea from. Was it something in a working prototype or the movie makers are just too creative. These are the list of movies that has pushed the technology or changed our daily life 1 way or another.
- Close Encounter of the 3rd kind - Using musical notes to communicate. And the very first sci-fi movies that i’ve watched.
- Demolition Man - Voice Recognition when Sylvester Stallone entered the room
- Terminator - Where the computer has come to live and destroy human kind. Trigger thoughts on Artificial Intelligence on how computer can responds to our request and becoming more human-like.
- Matrix - Uploading of software into human’s brain. ‘I know Kung-fu …’
Not too sure if this is the trend starter for document, images or video upload in the internet world - Minority Report - The infamous portion of being able to drag items from the screen via touchscreen. Check out Microsoft surface technology and also all the upcoming touchscreens applications.
- Mission Impossible 2 - Oakley sunglass, where Tom cruise was wearing it for his new mission. With this, there is sunglass that comes with mp3 player feature.
- James Bond : In Tomorrow Never Dies - The Release of Nokia Communicator where a phone can control car remotely.
- Men in black - A gadgets that can translate all human possible languages.
I’m sure there are more which i can’t think of now. Will update this blogs again.
Gave in to the temptation
March 18th, 2009 by xiao baiWent to the IT show on last sat and sun. After 2 days of battling with myself, i’ve finally gave in and got myself an iPod classic. Actually to be exact is 3 months of researching and finding excuses to get one. 1 of the reason why i hesitated was iTunes. Unlike Creative where you can drag and drop which is so much faster and easier
I have come up with a list of reasons to convince myself :
- No other mp3 player comes with 120 GB of storage space at this reasonable size.
- Sound quality can be improved. How ?? Visit Adelphi look for shops that can provide imod service and spend about $300.
- Prior to this, i was a Creative person, until this IT show which they din even participate. So is a sign that they are not doing well.
- Yes, i admit is so much cooler than Creative product.
- Peer Pressure.
- Free gift ( Universal adaptor + Screen protector + idock station).
- 3rd party gadgets that goes with it. This proves that win the crowd and the rest will follow.
- Try out the interface which hopefully will comes in handy when cracking for UI experience on the web.
It’s been 3 days and still in the box. Will target to set it up by this weekend.
Other things which i bought at the IT show, Buffalo Link station and Olympus waterproof camera.