Should it come as any surprise that more than 60% of twitters never return after the initial signup? I must be old school, even though I work in startups, and can't live without the net, both for work, leisure and daily essentials. But I have a busy schedule, and can't afford to have my time wasted. I spent upward of 10 hours a day in front of my laptop. Granted that I would scout for MTV from the 1980s and 90s for old time sake, most (if not all) of my activities, almost everything that I do on the web are essentials to me. But I stay on most with those sites that I need a service from.
I read news, lots of it. My usual stops are google news, New York Times, CNN, Sydney Morning Herald, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, BusinessWeek, Reuters, with the occasional dose of Washington Post, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and for easy read, The Smithsonian magazine. I love Fortune, but I don't read it online since I still enjoy taking it with me when I'm offline. As you can see, my morning is pretty busy reading, before I start my work. I usually cramp all the news within the first 1.5 hours, but would still stay on some of the sites (eg. google news) for any breaking news. I like the more passive way of retrieving news, rather than having a TV blasting in the room. I feel more in control that way.
And when my work day starts (usually around 8:30), I'm constantly on numerous technical sites for work. I'm also on Yahoo Finance and etrade throughout the day when markets are open, since I do trading on the side.
You see, if you want someone like me to be on all the time, you have to have the (good) contents to keep me sticky. Some might argue that following celebrity or tailing your friends' every move are reasons compelling enough, I beg to differ. I don't see why I have to know my friends steering at their coffee mugs doing nothing, or opening the fridge and found the milk gone sour. And maybe I never have any care for celebrity (I rarely read entertainment news), I don't see why I would be interesting in Oprah, Ashton Kucher, or some such.
So, to say that 60% of the twitter first time users never come back, I'd say, good riddance and three cheers to them. If twitters spend the time they twit to do some volunteering work, our society would have been in much better shape.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
On MFDA...
I remember I read it somewhere, of a saying that the AMA manual has a symptom/illness for every human behavior on earth. I can't agree more.
Modern medicine has certainly expanded dramatically, for better or for worse. And now, we have MFDA - Modern Female Dating Anxiety. I'd say, 99.9999999% of humans, including men and most certainly women, would have felt apprehension about the whole dating game, with or without modern technologies. For these so-called experts to slap something together, putting the age-old apprehension and modern technologies, is simply disingenuous. The whole premise that these two topics are strongly correlated is simply bogus.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On a different note, it reminds me of how it (dating) had been like. The now-you-see-me-now-you-don't thing. There's a Chinese (Cantonese) saying for this: "It's like mist, yet it's like flower." My direct translation does not do justice to this old Cantonese saying, which describes how it feels like, of the ambivalence, apprehension, and wonders ("does he really like me?", "should I call or just wait for his call?" kind of things).
But no, I don't see anything wrong with that kind of apprehension. As a matter of fact, I enjoy that initial phase of courtship the most. Perhaps, that's why I enjoy Jane Austen's Persuasion (2007) over Bertolucci's Last Tango In Paris.
It's that kind of wonderment, that was captured and described so well in Jane Austen's famous novels. I guess, Jane Austen needs a prescription for MFDA as well.
Modern medicine has certainly expanded dramatically, for better or for worse. And now, we have MFDA - Modern Female Dating Anxiety. I'd say, 99.9999999% of humans, including men and most certainly women, would have felt apprehension about the whole dating game, with or without modern technologies. For these so-called experts to slap something together, putting the age-old apprehension and modern technologies, is simply disingenuous. The whole premise that these two topics are strongly correlated is simply bogus.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On a different note, it reminds me of how it (dating) had been like. The now-you-see-me-now-you-don't thing. There's a Chinese (Cantonese) saying for this: "It's like mist, yet it's like flower." My direct translation does not do justice to this old Cantonese saying, which describes how it feels like, of the ambivalence, apprehension, and wonders ("does he really like me?", "should I call or just wait for his call?" kind of things).
But no, I don't see anything wrong with that kind of apprehension. As a matter of fact, I enjoy that initial phase of courtship the most. Perhaps, that's why I enjoy Jane Austen's Persuasion (2007) over Bertolucci's Last Tango In Paris.
It's that kind of wonderment, that was captured and described so well in Jane Austen's famous novels. I guess, Jane Austen needs a prescription for MFDA as well.
On social networking etiquette and others...
Having working in the IT field for some years now, and knowing first-hand how long a virtual contact can last, I have always had doubts as to how useful the social contacts from social networking sites are. My own rule of thumb is that, however closely you work with someone professionally, once you fall out of touch in a couple of years, that contact would have become stale, rendering it almost useless. When I say "useless", I'm referring to a contact that can translate into a job or business, without having to go through the usuals, like serial rounds of interviews. Afterall, if I have to sit through those rounds of interviews, it would mean that this contact really hasn't vouched for me much, and I'm simply another potential hire in the door. If someone really knows you well, and are useful enough to get you to a job, s/he should have vouched for the kind of (good) work that you can do. If that doesn't happen, I might as well send resumes massively over the web, spray the bullets to hopefully get some hits.
Like much of my colleagues who left the company for greener pasture, they almost always send LinkedIn invites to me. Same thing happens to those classmates from an intensive online class that I recently took in a graduate program. I mean, given that I only worked with them over the course of 4-6 weeks on classwork, while these classmates are all good to work with on a class, I really would have no idea what kind of work they do, or how they might be like professionally; likewise, they me. I have serious doubts too, that they might remember my name, or I them. So, what's the purpose really, to build up 3985 (or more) contacts/connections in LinkedIn, when 99.99% of them are bogus or useless?
Perhaps, having "graduated" from social networking predecessors like irc, I'm more cynical too, for all these social networking sites. I have no doubts that kids and younger adults would fall heads over heels on it, thinking it's fun and exciting, but I really don't see anything interesting at all, following short-burst tweets from some celebrities like Ashton Kutcher, or poking someone in Facebook. I have no doubts too, that I'm probably too old for these things which seem so juvenile to me. I'd rather do something a bit more useful in life than to poke or tweet.
Like much of my colleagues who left the company for greener pasture, they almost always send LinkedIn invites to me. Same thing happens to those classmates from an intensive online class that I recently took in a graduate program. I mean, given that I only worked with them over the course of 4-6 weeks on classwork, while these classmates are all good to work with on a class, I really would have no idea what kind of work they do, or how they might be like professionally; likewise, they me. I have serious doubts too, that they might remember my name, or I them. So, what's the purpose really, to build up 3985 (or more) contacts/connections in LinkedIn, when 99.99% of them are bogus or useless?
Perhaps, having "graduated" from social networking predecessors like irc, I'm more cynical too, for all these social networking sites. I have no doubts that kids and younger adults would fall heads over heels on it, thinking it's fun and exciting, but I really don't see anything interesting at all, following short-burst tweets from some celebrities like Ashton Kutcher, or poking someone in Facebook. I have no doubts too, that I'm probably too old for these things which seem so juvenile to me. I'd rather do something a bit more useful in life than to poke or tweet.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
On stress relief and busy schedule, and miscellaneous thoughts...
I've come to enjoy keeping my journal entries in blogs, mainly for my own reference. It's exactly one month ago, when I was quite stressed out, and I felt sort of overwhelmed of all the tasks. Amazingly, a month has passed, and my class in this semester (of my masters program) is coming to an end, saved the final exam this week.
Reading my journal a month ago, I realize I've accomplished most everything that I needed to do, though there are still things that I need to wrap up. Now, I have another long list of things to do. New class is starting next month. But I feel like I have a recipe on how to deal with the busy schedule and my study. I feel quite good about it.
Perhaps one of the worst things is when we have to wait, and sit on our hands. Right now, a few things have to wait, and have to be done sequentially. (We'll wait for the tax refunds, then refinance, then do some advertising for the business, etc etc.) I don't like waiting. That's probably one of the things I have to learn to do better, namely, to be patient.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On a different note...
Did I mention that my 401k portfolio that I've been actively managing myself, is now up by close to 9%, year-to-date? I miss a few sucker's rally for the past few weeks, but I don't think they're real.
There's this saying that, we've had our lost decade from 1998-2008 when the markets implode, akin to the Lost Decade in Japan. It certainly feels like it to me, when incidentally, my 401k has lost almost precisely 50% over these past ten years, so that the value over this same period is almost exactly equal to the sum that I have contributed to the 401k (as if there's no growth over these past 10 years), and nothing more.
I wonder how long it'll take me to recoup some of the growth in my 401k.
If we hadn't sold our second condo almost at the top of the property market (in mid 2007) with some 350% profit, we would have worked for almost nothing in the past ten years, which would have been very sad. I'm still marvel by the timing of that transaction, which was kind of forced on us (since I had not wanted to sell that lovely condo). In hindsight, it's Providence that it should happen that way, at that period of time. I almost feel bad for that family who forced our hand to sell to them, and now they're saddled with multiple mortgages (five, I think), including their vacation homes. I guess God works in His mysterious way.
Reading my journal a month ago, I realize I've accomplished most everything that I needed to do, though there are still things that I need to wrap up. Now, I have another long list of things to do. New class is starting next month. But I feel like I have a recipe on how to deal with the busy schedule and my study. I feel quite good about it.
Perhaps one of the worst things is when we have to wait, and sit on our hands. Right now, a few things have to wait, and have to be done sequentially. (We'll wait for the tax refunds, then refinance, then do some advertising for the business, etc etc.) I don't like waiting. That's probably one of the things I have to learn to do better, namely, to be patient.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On a different note...
Did I mention that my 401k portfolio that I've been actively managing myself, is now up by close to 9%, year-to-date? I miss a few sucker's rally for the past few weeks, but I don't think they're real.
There's this saying that, we've had our lost decade from 1998-2008 when the markets implode, akin to the Lost Decade in Japan. It certainly feels like it to me, when incidentally, my 401k has lost almost precisely 50% over these past ten years, so that the value over this same period is almost exactly equal to the sum that I have contributed to the 401k (as if there's no growth over these past 10 years), and nothing more.
I wonder how long it'll take me to recoup some of the growth in my 401k.
If we hadn't sold our second condo almost at the top of the property market (in mid 2007) with some 350% profit, we would have worked for almost nothing in the past ten years, which would have been very sad. I'm still marvel by the timing of that transaction, which was kind of forced on us (since I had not wanted to sell that lovely condo). In hindsight, it's Providence that it should happen that way, at that period of time. I almost feel bad for that family who forced our hand to sell to them, and now they're saddled with multiple mortgages (five, I think), including their vacation homes. I guess God works in His mysterious way.
On circumcision on baby boys...
Yesterday, I came upon a blog from a supposed parent on circumcision on baby boys. It's an interesting topic, since people are either very much for or against it, and there's not much middle ground.
I'm not a very religious person, so I have no strong belief or need to have my son circumcised. Some people, like my dad, hold the belief that, if there's nothing wrong with something, leave it alone. Along that line of reasoning, my dad is very much against taking out wisdom teeth, unless they cause pain.
Unlike some people who have it done on their baby boys because it doesn't look right when the boys grow older (and tease might ensue), our decision to have our son circumcised when he's two days old was all hygiene. My husband convinces me enough of how much a hassle it is to clean the genitalia, having to pull the foreskin back to clean properly.
It was a difficult decision for me since having such procedure done on a two-day baby really does not sound right. Compound to the fact that the nurse who did it for our son did not do a proper job, and he was bleeding profusely right after the procedure, just when we were about to check out from postpartum.
But I'm glad that we did. Believe me, boys will be boys, and when you have to teach them proper personal hygiene, particularly to boys, they quite often forget. It'll be a much bigger hassle to have to deal with infection later on in his life.
I guess, for those who think it's cruel for the babies, or it's completely unnecessary (since nothing might happen to the boys when they get older), I'd say, they're all correct. But just as we immunize our babies because we don't want bad things to happen to them, I consider circumcision to be one of those precautions. Ultimately, it's a personal decision of the parents. There really isn't a right or wrong answer to it.
I'm not a very religious person, so I have no strong belief or need to have my son circumcised. Some people, like my dad, hold the belief that, if there's nothing wrong with something, leave it alone. Along that line of reasoning, my dad is very much against taking out wisdom teeth, unless they cause pain.
Unlike some people who have it done on their baby boys because it doesn't look right when the boys grow older (and tease might ensue), our decision to have our son circumcised when he's two days old was all hygiene. My husband convinces me enough of how much a hassle it is to clean the genitalia, having to pull the foreskin back to clean properly.
It was a difficult decision for me since having such procedure done on a two-day baby really does not sound right. Compound to the fact that the nurse who did it for our son did not do a proper job, and he was bleeding profusely right after the procedure, just when we were about to check out from postpartum.
But I'm glad that we did. Believe me, boys will be boys, and when you have to teach them proper personal hygiene, particularly to boys, they quite often forget. It'll be a much bigger hassle to have to deal with infection later on in his life.
I guess, for those who think it's cruel for the babies, or it's completely unnecessary (since nothing might happen to the boys when they get older), I'd say, they're all correct. But just as we immunize our babies because we don't want bad things to happen to them, I consider circumcision to be one of those precautions. Ultimately, it's a personal decision of the parents. There really isn't a right or wrong answer to it.
On the passing fad of Second Life...
Web fads come and go. Podcast is one of them. I'd consider Second Life another addition to the passing fads.
I do realize the allure of a virtual life and identity. Once upon a time, I was hooked on irc in its early days. No doubt that there are those who hang around the virtual world for a very long time, but most people like me move on with their lives. So, when Second Life was all the rage only a few years back, I have serious doubts. Indeed, its star has faded drastically. There's talk of its revival, but I don't buy it that it'll be a parallel universe to the real world. While there's also talk of using SL as a platform for anything virtual (eg. teleconferencing), it'll perhaps take a couple of generations for those in the business world to take SL seriously. If SL can survive that long in its niche, perhaps it can fulfill some of the promises. For now, it's nothing more than a plaything.
I do realize the allure of a virtual life and identity. Once upon a time, I was hooked on irc in its early days. No doubt that there are those who hang around the virtual world for a very long time, but most people like me move on with their lives. So, when Second Life was all the rage only a few years back, I have serious doubts. Indeed, its star has faded drastically. There's talk of its revival, but I don't buy it that it'll be a parallel universe to the real world. While there's also talk of using SL as a platform for anything virtual (eg. teleconferencing), it'll perhaps take a couple of generations for those in the business world to take SL seriously. If SL can survive that long in its niche, perhaps it can fulfill some of the promises. For now, it's nothing more than a plaything.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
On true romance, raw crude sex, and the change of times...
I've always enjoyed Jane Austen's books, and almost all the movie/TV adaptions of the books. I saw the BBC movie Jane Austen's Persuasion (2007) a few months ago on DVD. I like it enough that I bought the DVD as well.
Last night, I had a bit of free time, so I watch Last Tango In Paris on hulu.com. I watched this movie long time ago when I was quite small in Hong Kong. The movie was so heavily edited that I can only remember bits and pieces of it. Naturally, I didn't quite understand the movie at the time. Granted its controversy even to this day, I've decided to watch it again. It's free on hulu anyways.
I can't help but wonder out loud how the topic of sex and romance over the decades past have turned so much, for the worse. There it is, on the one hand, we have the idea of constancy, faithfulness and true romance in Persuasion. And then, we have Tango, where Bertulocci would have us believed that it's anything remotely resembled something called love. Granted that I don't like the idea of rigid and straitlaced society in the Jane Austen's days, it's laughable and totally crass for Bertulocci to tell us that the raw, crude sex should precede love, where the guy has total disregard and disrespect of the girl. How could one possibly consider that as love?!?
While I have no doubt that pedophilia have existed for as long as human history, I do believe the vast proliferation and reports in news of child porn and child abuse have alot to do with the exposure of and the subsequent desensitizing of crude sex in movies and mass media. Those who consider bad movies like Last Tango In Paris, and A Clockwork Orange are simply contributing to this.
Last night, I had a bit of free time, so I watch Last Tango In Paris on hulu.com. I watched this movie long time ago when I was quite small in Hong Kong. The movie was so heavily edited that I can only remember bits and pieces of it. Naturally, I didn't quite understand the movie at the time. Granted its controversy even to this day, I've decided to watch it again. It's free on hulu anyways.
I can't help but wonder out loud how the topic of sex and romance over the decades past have turned so much, for the worse. There it is, on the one hand, we have the idea of constancy, faithfulness and true romance in Persuasion. And then, we have Tango, where Bertulocci would have us believed that it's anything remotely resembled something called love. Granted that I don't like the idea of rigid and straitlaced society in the Jane Austen's days, it's laughable and totally crass for Bertulocci to tell us that the raw, crude sex should precede love, where the guy has total disregard and disrespect of the girl. How could one possibly consider that as love?!?
While I have no doubt that pedophilia have existed for as long as human history, I do believe the vast proliferation and reports in news of child porn and child abuse have alot to do with the exposure of and the subsequent desensitizing of crude sex in movies and mass media. Those who consider bad movies like Last Tango In Paris, and A Clockwork Orange are simply contributing to this.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
On Susan Boyle, ugly duckling, and internet sensation...
Every so often, unlikely internet sensation would surface that delights. Couple of years ago, there's the star war kid which was then much improved to become a near legend on youtube.
Last week or so, there's this 47-year-old lady on the talent show Britain's Got Talent, who went on to become an even bigger sensation, since it's on TV as well. I must confess that, right when she started singing, my eyes welled up for some unknown reason. She has such a beautiful voice, and yet, so many people had looked down on her, simply because she looks like a cleaning lady or your grandmother. But, is it so inconceivable when she said she wants to be a professional singer? She has, in fact, more talent than all those women who rolled their eyes (caught on camera and TV), combined. For that alone, for her dream to come dream, for indeed an ugly duckling has risen to become the white swan, right in front of our eyes, it moves me.
While she could well fade away after her 15-minute of fame, she has achieved what she has promised her mother. I'm profoundly happy for her.
Last week or so, there's this 47-year-old lady on the talent show Britain's Got Talent, who went on to become an even bigger sensation, since it's on TV as well. I must confess that, right when she started singing, my eyes welled up for some unknown reason. She has such a beautiful voice, and yet, so many people had looked down on her, simply because she looks like a cleaning lady or your grandmother. But, is it so inconceivable when she said she wants to be a professional singer? She has, in fact, more talent than all those women who rolled their eyes (caught on camera and TV), combined. For that alone, for her dream to come dream, for indeed an ugly duckling has risen to become the white swan, right in front of our eyes, it moves me.
While she could well fade away after her 15-minute of fame, she has achieved what she has promised her mother. I'm profoundly happy for her.
Friday, April 3, 2009
On the perils of internet addiction, irc, et al....
I have no doubts that most people casually discard those reports on internet addiction.
I don't.
I treat them with great caution, because I have been none before. Normally, I don't get "addicted" to something easily. I started drinking coffee when I was 7 (when my dad shares his coffee with me, mixing it with the yacky milk to make it taste better), and I cold-turkey my coffee drinking habit recently in less than 3 days. Sure, I got sleepy in the first day, but that's about the only withdrawal symptom I have. I slept through that first day, followed by couple of hours' nap in the next two days, and I'm good to go. When I make a decision and am determined to do something, I can get it done.
Back in my college days, I got hooked onto irc (aka, internet relay chat). Back then, irc was almost exclusively for college kids. AOL chatrooms were not even there yet, so most everyone on irc was university students, saved a few sysadmin folks, and a few bots around for manning traffic. It was fun, and it's exciting, because suddenly I was chatting with a whole host of people around the world, even flirting without any recourse (that I normally won't do). I would admit that it's intoxicating. Although I didn't lose any sleep (one of the symptom - sleep deprivation - mentioned in the report), I spent most of my waking hours on irc. I skipped classes, I went home late. There was one night that I got home so late that my sister (who was living with me back then) was ready to call the police, and she got so upset with me for "being irresponsible" and "insensitive to others". Well, naturally I didn't consider myself to be that bad, and my irc habit persists. I even had "bro" and "sis" on irc. Those were fun days.
That lasted for about 6 months, 6 intensive months of irc'ing. And then, reality hit hard on me, when I didn't have enough time to work on my computer graphics assignment, and I got really really low marks. I eventually dropped that elective. It's at that point that I realized that I was forfeiting my real life for something virtual, and I've decided that it's not worth it. So, I stopped, saved the occasional contact of a few irc pals. I pretty much cold-turkey off of irc.
After a few months of absence, getting back on irc almost seems mundane. There's the usual annoyance of the newbies who don't know the irc etiquette (eg. no caps unless you mean to yell). All the chatters and flirting on screen seem fruitless.
I kept in touch with a few irc pals for maybe a couple of years thereafter. Eventually all communication stops. By then, I realize that all these virtual friends are nothing more than that - virtual, not real. Everyone grows up and moves on. I move on too, and never look back.
I remember there were a few irc diehards who's been on irc (from its infancy) for almost 10 years already when I started. Some are grad students (for obvious reason that they'll be around their universities for that long). I remember this Korean guy from Texas, switching from full time to part time study, just so that he could hang around the campus for a longer period. (I'll leave out all irc nicknames, so everyone remains anonymous.) Looking back, he's almost like a loser to me. But when I first started out, he was cool. In fact, everyone on the irc channels thought he's a cool dude. Perhaps that's what kept him on irc for so long, since he's considered the cool dude on irc, which was probably something that he wasn't in real life.
And then there's my irc big bro in Arizona, who was a grad student in CS. His sudden death (real one) came as a shock to everyone. He had tried to flirt with me on irc and I declined, but we stayed as irc pals for quite some time. He managed to get another girl from Taiwan hooked. In fact, when he died, this Taiwanese girl flew in to Arizona to attend his funeral, just to find out that he already had a very steady, longtime girlfriend in real life. After that, she flew home, heartbroken.
Unlike these days when pedophiles are a given in the virtual world, predatory on everyone who claims to be underaged, it wasn't so back then. The "danger" on irc back then was mainly getting ditched by your bf/gf. Looking back, it's so benign.
I had an irc pal who was a prodigy, finishing his first degree in math when he was 13. He had disguised his age and you wouldn't realize it. You probably won't realize it either, meeting him in person, since he's 6'5" (yes, he's very tall). I remember that day when he disclosed his real age on the irc channel, everyone pretty much stopped talking to him. I felt bad for him, and I kept in touch with him for a longer period, until he moved to California, finished his Ph.D at 20, and married at 21. And I'm glad he finds a real life, and has moved on.
In any case, virtual reality is just that - virtual, a mirage. It's left to everyone's fancy. But it can be turned off the in a flash.
I know my kids - indeed all kids - would potentially go through that path. The path of virtual reality is much more dangerous now, since the web is not as pure as it once was (when almost everyone was from college), and is littered with all sorts of dangerous figures (eg. pedophiles). I hope my experience would equip me well to guide my kids through this.
I don't.
I treat them with great caution, because I have been none before. Normally, I don't get "addicted" to something easily. I started drinking coffee when I was 7 (when my dad shares his coffee with me, mixing it with the yacky milk to make it taste better), and I cold-turkey my coffee drinking habit recently in less than 3 days. Sure, I got sleepy in the first day, but that's about the only withdrawal symptom I have. I slept through that first day, followed by couple of hours' nap in the next two days, and I'm good to go. When I make a decision and am determined to do something, I can get it done.
Back in my college days, I got hooked onto irc (aka, internet relay chat). Back then, irc was almost exclusively for college kids. AOL chatrooms were not even there yet, so most everyone on irc was university students, saved a few sysadmin folks, and a few bots around for manning traffic. It was fun, and it's exciting, because suddenly I was chatting with a whole host of people around the world, even flirting without any recourse (that I normally won't do). I would admit that it's intoxicating. Although I didn't lose any sleep (one of the symptom - sleep deprivation - mentioned in the report), I spent most of my waking hours on irc. I skipped classes, I went home late. There was one night that I got home so late that my sister (who was living with me back then) was ready to call the police, and she got so upset with me for "being irresponsible" and "insensitive to others". Well, naturally I didn't consider myself to be that bad, and my irc habit persists. I even had "bro" and "sis" on irc. Those were fun days.
That lasted for about 6 months, 6 intensive months of irc'ing. And then, reality hit hard on me, when I didn't have enough time to work on my computer graphics assignment, and I got really really low marks. I eventually dropped that elective. It's at that point that I realized that I was forfeiting my real life for something virtual, and I've decided that it's not worth it. So, I stopped, saved the occasional contact of a few irc pals. I pretty much cold-turkey off of irc.
After a few months of absence, getting back on irc almost seems mundane. There's the usual annoyance of the newbies who don't know the irc etiquette (eg. no caps unless you mean to yell). All the chatters and flirting on screen seem fruitless.
I kept in touch with a few irc pals for maybe a couple of years thereafter. Eventually all communication stops. By then, I realize that all these virtual friends are nothing more than that - virtual, not real. Everyone grows up and moves on. I move on too, and never look back.
I remember there were a few irc diehards who's been on irc (from its infancy) for almost 10 years already when I started. Some are grad students (for obvious reason that they'll be around their universities for that long). I remember this Korean guy from Texas, switching from full time to part time study, just so that he could hang around the campus for a longer period. (I'll leave out all irc nicknames, so everyone remains anonymous.) Looking back, he's almost like a loser to me. But when I first started out, he was cool. In fact, everyone on the irc channels thought he's a cool dude. Perhaps that's what kept him on irc for so long, since he's considered the cool dude on irc, which was probably something that he wasn't in real life.
And then there's my irc big bro in Arizona, who was a grad student in CS. His sudden death (real one) came as a shock to everyone. He had tried to flirt with me on irc and I declined, but we stayed as irc pals for quite some time. He managed to get another girl from Taiwan hooked. In fact, when he died, this Taiwanese girl flew in to Arizona to attend his funeral, just to find out that he already had a very steady, longtime girlfriend in real life. After that, she flew home, heartbroken.
Unlike these days when pedophiles are a given in the virtual world, predatory on everyone who claims to be underaged, it wasn't so back then. The "danger" on irc back then was mainly getting ditched by your bf/gf. Looking back, it's so benign.
I had an irc pal who was a prodigy, finishing his first degree in math when he was 13. He had disguised his age and you wouldn't realize it. You probably won't realize it either, meeting him in person, since he's 6'5" (yes, he's very tall). I remember that day when he disclosed his real age on the irc channel, everyone pretty much stopped talking to him. I felt bad for him, and I kept in touch with him for a longer period, until he moved to California, finished his Ph.D at 20, and married at 21. And I'm glad he finds a real life, and has moved on.
In any case, virtual reality is just that - virtual, a mirage. It's left to everyone's fancy. But it can be turned off the in a flash.
I know my kids - indeed all kids - would potentially go through that path. The path of virtual reality is much more dangerous now, since the web is not as pure as it once was (when almost everyone was from college), and is littered with all sorts of dangerous figures (eg. pedophiles). I hope my experience would equip me well to guide my kids through this.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
On the growing irrelevance of voicemail...
I thought it was just me, but alas, loads of people are thinking the same as well!
I'm talking about voicemail, for goodness sake! I have grown to dislike voicemail. It's cumbersome, often requiring me to press multiple buttons in order to repeat a message to get the point when the caller would mumble-jumble his/her number, and I have to fumble the same multiple buttons to hear it again. When you're on a cell phone and not on a headset, you would understand the level of angst and frustration.
Although I was somewhat surprised that other people, as many as 30% of them, as quoted in the New York Times article, who do not check their voicemail regularly, if at all. Oftentimes, I leave my voicemail unchecked for days. And you know, after the voicemail is left unchecked for a couple of days, and there are no further attempt to reach me - ie. other more intelligent attempts like email or text or IM, that can reach me more instanteously - I know those messages can be ignored.
With the cell phones getting smarter and more capable of handling emails, texting and others while one's on the road, I simply don't see why someone would hang onto voicemail.
I know, I know, there will always be some diehards who would cling on to their voicemail. Like the dying breed who still write letters, I bet the voicemail bunch will go into the history archive sooner than we think. Some day, we'll all look back, perhaps not so fondly, and show our grandkids how many buttons and clicks we have to go through in order to check voicemails, and we'll surely be told that voicemail belongs to the history.
Telcos have vested in encouraging more use of their data network, ala texting and some such, but it's something that a growing majority of customers want. For me, I just wish that voicemail would die.
I'm talking about voicemail, for goodness sake! I have grown to dislike voicemail. It's cumbersome, often requiring me to press multiple buttons in order to repeat a message to get the point when the caller would mumble-jumble his/her number, and I have to fumble the same multiple buttons to hear it again. When you're on a cell phone and not on a headset, you would understand the level of angst and frustration.
Although I was somewhat surprised that other people, as many as 30% of them, as quoted in the New York Times article, who do not check their voicemail regularly, if at all. Oftentimes, I leave my voicemail unchecked for days. And you know, after the voicemail is left unchecked for a couple of days, and there are no further attempt to reach me - ie. other more intelligent attempts like email or text or IM, that can reach me more instanteously - I know those messages can be ignored.
With the cell phones getting smarter and more capable of handling emails, texting and others while one's on the road, I simply don't see why someone would hang onto voicemail.
I know, I know, there will always be some diehards who would cling on to their voicemail. Like the dying breed who still write letters, I bet the voicemail bunch will go into the history archive sooner than we think. Some day, we'll all look back, perhaps not so fondly, and show our grandkids how many buttons and clicks we have to go through in order to check voicemails, and we'll surely be told that voicemail belongs to the history.
Telcos have vested in encouraging more use of their data network, ala texting and some such, but it's something that a growing majority of customers want. For me, I just wish that voicemail would die.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
On what to do when economy is going down...
It's a popular water cooler subject to talk about the down-and-out economy right now. Job market is terrible. Millions of jobs lost, and unemployment rising close to 10% in US. And everyone's job looks to be in jeopardy.
I preferred to stay positive.
So, I started my masters degree (since I have wanted to do that for a while but never summoned enough determination to squeeze my already busy schedule to do it). Afterall, the company is paying for it. While I don't really need the masters to boost my resume (as I want to pursue my own business in my next career move, and don't want to look for another job anymore), it should come in handy in boosting my bio when I have my business.
And I trade with in own IRA account. There are advantages in doing so with the IRA account, for the obvious reasons of tax purpose. And with the IRA, I have a longer horizon. Previously, when I was trading with my taxable brokerage account, I'm happy with profits just to cover the grocery for the month (although I mostly did better than that). Now, with more capital, I have more freedom to pick stocks. All things considered, making close to 8% so far (year-to-date, since Jan 2009) is pretty satisfactory to me. When the market goes crazy, I'm just as happy sitting on my hands (aka cash) instead. With a longer horizon, I'm in no hurry to jump back in the suckers rally.
I have come to realize that I don't want to pay a cut to those less-than-mediocre fund managers, with no transparency at all in the fund prices and activities. And the fund prices are determined in a large part by the irrational behavior of other fundholders (who can exit in droves, forcing the fund prices down due to fire-sale of the underlying stocks in the fund to meet redemption needs). And then, there is the very real possibility of the funds front-running the fundholders. So, no, I don't like mutual funds at all. In fact, all my holdings now are either ETF index funds, or directly holding the stocks.
The important thing is, I don't get greedy. And I don't look back and regret (like, I wish I didn't sell since price is 20% higher now). I make my target, I buy-and-sell, and I get out. I have a profit goal in mind, and I'm happy as soon as it's met.
And I've learnt not to look at the market too often. Emotions do get in the way. There were a few times when I got anxious in the beginning, ditching my initial goal to chase the market (either when it's going up or heading down). I would look at the charts three times a day, no more, no less. Sometimes I think even three times are a bit too much. Well, when I'm busy at work, I won't even look at it at all. I set the goal at the beginning of the day, and that would be it.
I was telling my siblings about this, and they mistook me as day-traders. I told them, I'm not a day-trader. I don't close out my books at the day. I don't bound myself to it. I only buy those that I would be very willing to keep long term, but am just as happy to take short term profit since the market is so volatile right now. Of course, I have a couple of dogs in my portfolio right now. But I know they'll come back at a later point. So, I'll just let them sit, and trade with the rest.
Just as importantly, there are the kids and family to keep busy, and the day job that sometimes runs into weekend when I have to work too. Too bad that nothing much is happening in our other business venture in watches. But in this economy, nothing much is happening in just about anywhere else. At least we don't have debts, and we can hunker down till the storm passes.
I know we'll be ok. I know the country will be ok. My life has been blessed, and I'm grateful to God for the tidings. I wish I could pass on my blessings to those less fortunate.
I preferred to stay positive.
So, I started my masters degree (since I have wanted to do that for a while but never summoned enough determination to squeeze my already busy schedule to do it). Afterall, the company is paying for it. While I don't really need the masters to boost my resume (as I want to pursue my own business in my next career move, and don't want to look for another job anymore), it should come in handy in boosting my bio when I have my business.
And I trade with in own IRA account. There are advantages in doing so with the IRA account, for the obvious reasons of tax purpose. And with the IRA, I have a longer horizon. Previously, when I was trading with my taxable brokerage account, I'm happy with profits just to cover the grocery for the month (although I mostly did better than that). Now, with more capital, I have more freedom to pick stocks. All things considered, making close to 8% so far (year-to-date, since Jan 2009) is pretty satisfactory to me. When the market goes crazy, I'm just as happy sitting on my hands (aka cash) instead. With a longer horizon, I'm in no hurry to jump back in the suckers rally.
I have come to realize that I don't want to pay a cut to those less-than-mediocre fund managers, with no transparency at all in the fund prices and activities. And the fund prices are determined in a large part by the irrational behavior of other fundholders (who can exit in droves, forcing the fund prices down due to fire-sale of the underlying stocks in the fund to meet redemption needs). And then, there is the very real possibility of the funds front-running the fundholders. So, no, I don't like mutual funds at all. In fact, all my holdings now are either ETF index funds, or directly holding the stocks.
The important thing is, I don't get greedy. And I don't look back and regret (like, I wish I didn't sell since price is 20% higher now). I make my target, I buy-and-sell, and I get out. I have a profit goal in mind, and I'm happy as soon as it's met.
And I've learnt not to look at the market too often. Emotions do get in the way. There were a few times when I got anxious in the beginning, ditching my initial goal to chase the market (either when it's going up or heading down). I would look at the charts three times a day, no more, no less. Sometimes I think even three times are a bit too much. Well, when I'm busy at work, I won't even look at it at all. I set the goal at the beginning of the day, and that would be it.
I was telling my siblings about this, and they mistook me as day-traders. I told them, I'm not a day-trader. I don't close out my books at the day. I don't bound myself to it. I only buy those that I would be very willing to keep long term, but am just as happy to take short term profit since the market is so volatile right now. Of course, I have a couple of dogs in my portfolio right now. But I know they'll come back at a later point. So, I'll just let them sit, and trade with the rest.
Just as importantly, there are the kids and family to keep busy, and the day job that sometimes runs into weekend when I have to work too. Too bad that nothing much is happening in our other business venture in watches. But in this economy, nothing much is happening in just about anywhere else. At least we don't have debts, and we can hunker down till the storm passes.
I know we'll be ok. I know the country will be ok. My life has been blessed, and I'm grateful to God for the tidings. I wish I could pass on my blessings to those less fortunate.
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