royce64ever

Apple, rip off the “Jobs” label!

royce64ever — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:05:00 GMT

The news about Jobs has caused “aesthetic fatigue”, seriously! After the media bombardment for more than a year, masses have focused on Jobs’ health condition, but still it seems to get more attention than Apple launching new products.

On the previous news conference for new products, media has turned their attention to Jobs’ health condition, which was described as emaciated. And the future of Apple is tied up with Jobs. But it looks like the more successful Apple products are, the worse Jobs’ health condition becomes.

We do understand how important Jobs is to Apple; the classical history of Apple is created by him, as a matter of course Apple is labeled with “Jobs”. A few months ago, Jobs just had liver transplantation, looks meager yet still peppy; his return get us pumped up and excited, but what confused me is that Jobs seems to be the soul of Apple, would Apple sink if Jobs did not make it back?

For every successful enterprise, the influence of its founder is inrooted. However, they should precisely spurn this inrooted influence when they enter a more mature period of development. Like IBM and Intel, they both went through the times from founder to professional manager, so should Apple, without a question!

Compared to Jobs’ situation, Bill Gates of MS seems luckier. Gates to MS is completely the same as Jobs to Apple; however, Gates could leave MS to do his own charity with a light heart, yet Jobs had to return with a transplanted liver to exert his utmost effort for Apple, which inevitably makes Apple fans a bit heavy-hearted.

Even if Jobs still wants to participate in the management of Apple, the only option that may help Apple rip off the “Jobs” label might be working behind the scenes.

Jobs said: "I now have the liver of a mid-20s person who died in a car crash and was generous enough to donate their organs, and I wouldn't be here without such generosity." And this is exactly why Jobs should treasure more of himself, which is good for his health and also more propitious for the long-term development of Apple.

Shipping! What’s the Hitch?

royce64ever — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:22:00 GMT

Looking back at all the cases we’ve dealt with on EggXpert, I noticed that there are a lot of posts made about shipping. Personally I feel that shipping is something we don’t have as much control over (compared to our own services; I even remember a customer complained that the delivery guy called him and yelled that he didn’t know the way!), but there are two sides to this story: what can Newegg do, and what can our shippers do?

Staff quality!

Most complaints are regarding: bad manners, mis-delivered packages, damaged or lost shipments, and even the leaking of customer info. Well we know that the delivery job is hard, and like all industries some staff do a better job than others. Therefore, apart from a mutual understanding between the customer and the delivery staff, strict management and a clear-cut line between reward and punishment might be the only way to improve.

The victims?

Shipping service is at the forefront of a customer’s online transaction. Their attitude and service affect the rawest feeling of the whole shopping experience, including their feelings about our products, services and reputation. Therefore, when the shipping service is unpleasant, customers always tend to report it to e-tailers first, even though the problem occurred after the e-tailer handed off the order to the shipper.

I once saw a message from an upset customer: Maybe losing a few customers won’t greatly affect your sales, but what you lose is our faith in you. And this is utmost satire to the quality and service that you always pursue and build. As an e-tailer, who would want to lose even a single customer?! In this situation, the customers and e-tailers are both victims.

Play hard!

In the example above, the shipping company is also a victim, because every company wants to improve their reputation! Some shipping companies take responsibility and apologize to their customers, giving financial and spiritual compensation and rectifying or improving their services. No matter what change this may make, at least they are trying! But obviously, the driver, who provides the direct service and represents the company, is the crucial aspect of a shipping company. They could and should pay more attention to training their drivers; or even make a harsher policy based on the amount of complaints received. E-tailers may only urge shippers to perfect their service, but it’s the shipping company that must reinforce this with their management.

Race up, Express!

What they call “sharing woe” applies directly to shipping companies and e-tailers, as they are closely related and mutually dependent. It’s impossible for every e-tailer to have its own logistics & shipping system. So, if the level of shipping service cannot keep the pace with the highly developing e-commerce industry, it will affect the development and benefits of both industries.

E-commerce is a crossover of traditional industry and internet, and shipping is the last mile of this industry chain, also a part of customers’ experience. If the quality of its service does not improve, it would eventually be a hitch to the progress of the e-commerce industry.

Battle of 2 Cultures: Microsoft vs. Google

royce64ever — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 13:00:00 GMT

Although there’s always been criticism about MS being greedy, still MS products are cornering the market. Windows, like a satellite launching tower, is leading and bringing people to the internet world. And there, people will meet Google sooner or later. And Google brings together all kinds of novelties fascinating and surprising people.

Google is free but MS charges, which we could say that Google is civilian and MS is hegemonic. So when Google is impacting MS by launching another and yet another new application, people are cheered and applauding for their civilian hero.

However, after the applause, they go back to their MS products. They still use their MS OS, MS Office, MS Outlook and MS MSN. A few IT elites, mostly technical elites, might be still using Google’s apps, Gtalk, Earth, etc.

So, Google products get applause from MS users; however, except for its search engine, we could hardly see its deep reach in commoners. The collision of Google Chrome OS and MS Windows 7 may be the same old story: applause is applause; then we still use what we use.

From the product angle, MS products are actually civilian: following and learning from MAC OS till XP gradually taking on a distinctive style and satisfying customers. Google stuffs are inexpensive and with powerful functions and great originality, but also reflecting the laziness of those Silicon Valley geniuses: plain, not fashionable, and precarious sometimes.

Therefore, we could say the conflict of Google and MS is the conflict of engineer and salesman. The former is deep inside a world of technique and function; the latter is all about business: satisfy customers’ habit maximally.

The appearance of Netbook leaves some kind of space to engineer culture: Netbook itself is a contracted laptop at the sacrifice of functions, like the subtraction from MS to Google products.

But Netbook is just a transition for now. When Apple’s Netbook appears, people would realize that “this is what we seek”!

Google has Android taking over the mobile terminal, but their internal competition strategy brought out Chrome. So the hardware manufacturers get sacred: what if there is something new of Google coming next year? Google never did promise anything to the manufacturers but MS did, which might make them think: more money or tossing around?

History has proved that it might not be a good idea to reduce the retail price of manufacturers. Earlier, PC manufacturers bundled Linux trying to reduce the price. But the market showed no interest to the low price. Therefore, hardware manufacturers should understand that: customers need something useful, not just something cheap.

If hardware manufacturers have something useful and pretty, customers would love it. So, Apple stuffs are desirable, always.

Chrome OS of A Conceptualization

royce64ever — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:37:00 GMT

Earlier I saw the news that Google announcing Chrome OS. Well then I’d like to share a few thoughts about the new Chrome OS.

A good browser? …not really

Chrome, as a browser, has been launched for quite a while. But I’m so sorry that I had not used it that much in the past few months. To me, Chrome is not an excellent browser. I mean, loading quickly is not the sole criterion for an excellent browser; like not every fast runner is good people, some thieves even run faster than cops.

Cloud computing & Netbook

Lots of reviews of Chrome OS think that the coming of Chrome OS is a good news for Cloud computing and Netbook. Well I can’t deny that Chrome OS is good for cloud computing; but for netbook, it’s a bit conceptualized. The designers of netbook would like netbook to be a widespread device, but the simplicity of Chrome OS then becomes the problem. At this point, Android seems to take a more dominant position.

So……Microsoft?

IMO, Chrome OS is simply offering an environment to start up Chrome, so this OS is way too simple to be a threat to Microsoft. Google itself has no intention of threatening Microsoft anyway; it’s still just trying to create its own road, for netbook or browser.

Wide but slow

Google has brought out so many products covering various fields. Speaking from the profitability of Google, I think highly of its ability of taking each field. However, Google thinks too far but move too slow; too many projects and products but just few lightspots. And this is seriously affecting this internet giant’s reputation. Google’s “Soft Power” keeps descending; so what I see Google is really simple: We love Google’s good work, yet we don’t adore or blindly follow its not-so-good work.

Lastly, for now, if Google wants to have a place in the OS field, Android would be better; Chrome OS to me is just like a concept, too far from reality.

Google & Journalism

royce64ever — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:33:00 GMT

Started by News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch, Wall Street Journal and Associated Press then joined the “war” against Google. It was not that surprised because Record Industry also had such issue before.

All the conflicts eventually came down to one: who is responsible for feeding a moribund industry? Or we could say “Is Henry Fort responsible for the decline of cab service?”

Well, it seems that it’s quite reasonable that journalism got p****d off: Google indexed our content, so you see, our ad revenue keeps declining while Google’s revenue gaining. Its Google took away the money that belongs to us! Google responds, if you do not want your content got indexed, easy! Just add a few lines of code to your robots.txt. But but but, Murdoch would never do that! He wants both the traffic and income of Google. So what he really meant was Google, as the biggest internet firm, has the responsibility to feed the moribund journalism.

But WTF?! How come that its Google’s mistake if the journalism was unable to keep pace with times?!

All doing the journalism, but I never heard TechCrunch or Read/Write Web blaming Google for that. It’s true that internet has destroyed many used-to-be stable business structures, meanwhile, brought up quite a few new business structures. Some people just keep their eyes on Google, rather than focus on how to gain more users holding the mouse! If the non-commercial Wiki could develop so well, then I could only say something just deserves death.

I don’t think we won’t have music to listen to if the Record Industry were dead; or we won’t have news to watch if newspaper were gone! If they just could not survive in the digital age or keep imputing all faults and wrongs on others, then just let them die.

It’s not that awful if traditional journalism were dead, because its death would set apart more opportunities. The strong always succeeds; the weakest goes to the wall.

Multiple-Language Irony

royce64ever — Sat, 16 May 2009 13:01:00 GMT

Heard that myspace.com is enforcing Chinese users to enter .cn. I thought this is quite stupid at first. But then I found it actually make sense in some aspects associating with the fact that lots of websites have been developing multiple-language version.

The developing of multiple-language version is like a simple way of localization. Baidu said internationalization is localization, which means you need to localize other places to become international.

From the marketing perspective, the purpose of multiple-language version developing is simple which is to give us a page we could understand. The target user is those “sorry for my English” ones. In reviewing of a few website that have had multiple-language version, like youtube, flickr, myspace and feedbuner, the efforts they made on multiple-language version are not that satisfied. Youtube has blocked or filtered overseas info proceed from the language and culture separation; flickr just simply added passable Traditional Chinese version; Feedbuner was also failed after a Chinese fan did Chinese-characterizing for a few hours; myspace just added Chinese-characterizing function actually.

As will be readily seen, the developing of multiple-language version is not only for those “sorry for my English” ones, but also appeared as an underlying marketing method. Then it’s understandable that myspace.com is enforcing Chinese users to enter .cn. After all, in most instances, a Chinese speaker would rather communicate with people who also speak Chinese. But for the presence of Tower of Babel, we have to make necessary separation. But in fact, the developing of multiple-language version is not just a basic marketing method. For example, why does not flickr develop Simplified Chinese version since the Traditional Chinese version is so bad? Coz it has something to do with the volume of users and direction of management? Why does Google have so many exquisite language versions but still did so bad in the localization in China? Why would youtube filter info of other language by means of the language you choose?

To above questions, we might already know the answers, but still I definitively think that the efforts an international website put into multiple-language version developing is not just translating or marketing, it must contain an in-depth knowledge about their market and a prior protection against difficulties ahead in the foreseeable future.

In China, a website with multiple-language version is something extremely rare. When a website announced its multiple-language version, people would question its necessity. Showing from one side a serious problem: in China, the reason why most websites do not need multiple-language version is because there is already a mature and famous English version, and what we are doing is just a primary translation.

Suck it up, take a chance, make a change

royce64ever — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:26:00 GMT

There are some things I learned in life about regretting things. I can complain and say “I should have done that differently,” but that’s the thing about it all. You can’t go back and change things that have already happened. (At least not everything.)

Life is hard, suck it up! That’s a motto to me for the past few years. Whenever something happened, even it was obviously unfair, I would just comfort myself to suck it up ‘cause everything can’t just be fair all the time. And over time, I’ve taken it for granted. The good thing is that I can always keep myself peaceful and steady. But recently I realized that it’s not okay just to suck it up. Why should I just be the one to shut up! It’s so much like a coward. If I just step up and contend for myself, there could be another result. Well, I can’t say the result could be good for me, but at least I let myself heard.

Yes, life is hard indeed. It’s hard enough to get myself tough to face any difficulties. I know I always can! But to remain unknown and a Mr. Nice Guy won’t always work in the damn cruel and hurting reality. Things are just unfair due to many reasons, but your attitude is something really precious. Don’t just stay so calm and make yourself believe it’s reasonable! Take a chance and make a change if you don’t feel it that way!

Looking back to the life before, I have no regrets! Everything that didn’t go the way I expected or planned has been a learning experience for me. Sure I can go and say “Man, I regret ever...” but I don’t want to do that. The outcomes of things that have gone wrong have taught me how to better myself, and how to make things right. It has made me a better person (I hope), and I’m grateful.

I’m not claiming to be a perfect person, ‘cause I’m not. I make mistakes all the time. I’m just tired of being so nice to shut up to all the unfair facts. I’d rather feel sad about the outcomes than regret of not trying!

So people, show your attitude!! Take a chance and make a change!!

Blog Talk II: Get The Comments Back!

royce64ever — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 12:59:00 GMT

If you are an independent blogger, you might have a deep impression of the pinch comment & response interaction. I often saw some outstanding articles with just few comments, even no comment at all. Consequently, I usually don’t click the article to read, because the accompanying content viewer has done that, and no need to click the mouse.

I’ve been doing my blog for a few years, but seldom post any comments in others’ blog. One thing is I don’t have much time, even if I posted a comment but still got few chances for communication. In this case, why bother to comment.

Another reason is that the comments were independent of my information flow, not carriable, unable to share, and with a low utilization rate. I think this is also the reason that most bloggers don’t post a comment. Especially under the current environment that informational services like Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed and Google reader are so popular, it seems hard for me to post a comment specially for other bloggers.

On the contrary, comments of one article could spread everywhere. For example, if you are interested in an article, Google Reader could “share note” with the built-in “note” function. However, the comment can’t be integrated into the original article; neither do the comments that Twitter users post when they reproduce or RT an article; and Friendfeed had its own comment function even earlier.

What this comment-decentralization would lead to is, blog, as a content creater, becomes less competitive and can’t be the focal point of our discussion. Then how to get your comments back? This has become a key factor whether blog could get back to the top again. In my opinion, the most important factor is the sharing and carrying of information.

After Facebook released Connect service, techcrunch, the well-known tech-blog, had also improved their note system accordingly. Users could post comment by logging into their techcrunch blog; they could also comment directly via their Facebook account. And what’s amazing is the comments would appear on both techcrunch blog and Facebook status. This change has immensely risen the utilization rate of comments and users’ enthusiasm of interaction, leading to a huge increase of comments for sure. This was just a good example for all the blog platform (wordpress. etc.) and note system (disqus. etc.).

Blog Talk I: Is Blog Age gone?

Blog Talk I: Is Blog Age gone?

royce64ever — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 14:25:00 GMT

Blog is dead?! Well, it may be too early to tell. We don’t know what “the wisdom of the masses” can do.

It could be big………or small.

You can see blog as God; but whether it is, it’s hard to tell. Many people say blog is We Media. Personally, I think its just people have different definitions of media. If we took blog as a platform or method of spreading information, then ridiculous ads could also be media; if we say blog had certain requirements for its audiences, at least quantity requirement, then feeds that got over 1000 subscriptions could reluctantly be called media. Therefore, broadly speaking, blogs are all We Media with different influence and delivery ratio, but all spreading information. It’s like a balloon; it grows bigger as you keep blowing.

The impact of Twitter

The impact of Twitter’s got to be a reason for blog’s fading. If I was constantly talking everyday, and what I said were just many little pieces. Could that be a complete and continuous thinking process? Would I still be spending time thinking completely? Well the questions are for those who see blog as human or even God. To me, Twitter is surely a mighty application. What sucks was I didn’t even realize its possible impact when it appeared. However, pieces are after all pieces, and putting them all together to make a whole picture is a complex process. And the conclusion that left by the process is the essential difference between twitter and blog.

Nothing more than a representation format

I remember when blog first appeared someone asked me what it was. I told him it was a online journal. And afterward, many people did take it as an online journal. Blog, as a programme, just provides a possibility, a platform; its you who decide what to write and where to post. It could be a poem when you post it in a magazine; it could also be a small illegal ad when you paste it at the bus stop.

It seems to me that Blog is far from over. In terms of website operator, maybe it’s a bit hard to gain profit form blog; surely we can’t say it wrong to think so. But blog, just like email, would be a tool for people to know each other. It may be hard to see profit from blog itself, but in the longer term, its still an indispensable service.

Blog Talk II: Get The Comments Back!

2009 Prediction: Survival of the Fittest

royce64ever — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 15:49:00 GMT

Recently there have been quite a lot frustrating IT news:

“Intel reported that fourth-quarter profits plummeted 90% and revenue fell 23% as the chipmaker became the latest casualty in the economic downturn that has hammered sales of PCs and consumer electronics. With the economy in tatters as a result of falling home and stock prices, tight credit, and rising joblessness, Intel declined to offer an official revenue forecast for the current quarter.” (Source)

“Nortel Networks, the telephone equipment maker that was once Canada's largest company by market value, filed for bankruptcy protection after losses mounted and financing dried up amid a deepening recession.” (Source)

“The global economy downturn picks no sides it seems, as analysts report that Sony is expected to post an operating loss of around $1.1 billion in the business year. The higher than expected loss could put more pressure on Sony execs to accelerate a restructuring plan announced last month, under which the company would cut 16,000 jobs and further curb investment. It’s important to note however, that this is the first time in 14 years that Sony could post an operating loss, and only the second the company has faced one since it went public in 1958.” (Source)

More: Sony Ericsson posted a loss of about $245 million for the fourth quarter of 2008; LG Display records 4th-quarter net loss of $500 million on US price-fixing fine……It seems that the whole world is keeping going down.

IT enterprises are a significant fraction of the Global Top 500 enterprises. Due to the financial crisis in late 2008, we can predict there is a reshuffle of their ranking in 2009. Every dog has his day. Let’s just wait and see how it will go.

Looking at the internet market, none were encouraging. Anyway, not everyone could put up a smile face in 2009.

Affected by the global financial crisis, lots of industries which saw the sharpest drop in profits have severely cutting back on advertising budget in 2009, which obviously would take its toll on many media and advertising companies directly. Comparing to TV and newspaper, the budget of Internet advertising is relatively lower. However, the focus for investing would change substantially.

That is most companies would put limited amounts of advertisements into top-grade online media just to improve performance to price ratio. Therefore, life could be even tougher for those second-grade and third-grade online media, especially video sharing websites -- astronomical monthly budget but still lack of a mature advertising market. A rivalry situation will surely arise between numerous medium- and small-scaled websites. And those websites who do not have enough funds to resist global financial crisis will have to sharply scale back the head counts, even close down.

The conformity of superior bad discard and adjust would surely appear during this financial crisis. Those uncompetitive medium- and small-scaled websites had better increase income and reduce expenditure in advance. Meanwhile, investors will need to keep an eye on those hip sites that coming up against the current. Because they are not like these shaped medium- and small-scaled websites; they have nothing to lose. They keep developing in the crisis, and once the economy recovered, they will gain a big following among the VCs. So if you got some funds, it may be better to have a try on them.

Twitter & Facebook

royce64ever — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 00:10:00 GMT

Twiitter rejected $500 million takeover offer from Facebook, and it’s by far a good solution for both of them.

To Twitter:

At present, it has a twenty million dollars venture investment, 17 employees, and for now there won’t be a problem for twitter to survive and develop. A smaller scale and independence would keep Twitter simple and open style, and get venerated between young people and Geekers. If more than 100 million active users of Facebook flooded to Twitter, it will only ruin Twitter.

To Facebook:

I wonder how Facebook would “deal with” Twitter if the takeover was succeeded. Facebook has already got lots of Twitter APPs. So they wanna spend a big deal of money only to gain another official APP? Although Facebook does not have an IPO yet, it is not a startup and under the pressure to turn a profit. For now, Twitter is not that helpful for Facebook to improve their profitability.

Other Aspects:

Price:

For any business, price would probably always be the #1 consideration. The purchase price that Facebook offered was 500 million dollars, and it was surely attractive. However, we should be aware that this 500 million dollars is not cash but Facebook’s stock. In accordance to the conversionratio of stock, it is at the rate that Microsoft paid $240 million for 1.6% stake in Facebook last year. That is to say, Twitter may have gained 3.3%-3.4% stake in Facebook if the takeover is succeeded. Although the number is good, Twitter is not a “booby” like Microsoft, so the price is not good enough for them.

Evan Williams:

Evan Williams, the founder of Twitter, is probably an important reason why this takeover was failed. Evan is really a legend, always on the top of Web2.0 network application tide. He sold Blogger to Google in 2003, and then Blog gradually grew to be a fundamental element and backbone of Web2.0; in 2005, he found Odeo, the first website that provides professional fullfunction service of Podcast network. Although the Odeo website ended in failure, Podcast has become an important form of information dissemination, and, to some extent, helped Apple Itunes Store become the largest online music reseller. Since found in 2006, Twitter has grown to be Web2.0’s new favor. And the Microblogging that came with it has also become an important part of social media, together with Blog and SNS.

Before Twitter is able to provide better service to its users, Evan does not want it to become a business machine of Facebook. Days ago Evan was back to be Twitter CEO again. I believe he could run Twitter better than Facebook.

Merry Little Xmas

royce64ever — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:01:00 GMT

I always want Xmas to be special. And I want my friends to feel it that way. I send lots of gifts to show my love for them. But my wish for each Xmas did not really come true, ever. So sometimes I was really upset, how come I was the “Santa” every year but I got nothing.

And each year, I grow older, with mind changing, I started to wonder why I care so much of what I give and what I get. I think maybe its because I took Xmas too serious much as a routine to give gifts rather than showing love. This is not what I meant in the first place.

To be frank, I don't practice a religion; actually I don't consider myself a Christian in the sense that I don't go to church every week, and I don't keep to the 10 commandments that the Bible says we should. But I think it is extremely important to believe in Christmas simply as a holiday, a special day, whether you are Christian, Jew, Muslim or any other religion across the world; I don't think the important thing is whether you practice the religion or believe in Christ, Jesus and God, but its the idea of what Christmas stands for -- peace and equality to people, and also the birth of hope in the face of any adversity, which would ring true for a lot of people taken into account the state of the world at the moment.

This is my first Xmas out of college, a Xmas without most of my close friends around. I feel kinda lost and lonely to be alone at Xmas. But I know that I don't need to force myself to enjoy the festive season, part of me would just seek out the positive points of Xmas to spite the negative reasons. I still miss them and am able to tell them this, so I’m grateful.

Glad that I finally understand Xmas is not about dream-come-true stuff and gifts-exchanging, but keeping a sweet little wish in your heart and never let it die. Then the faith will lead you to search for the dreams.

This year, I've found my Xmas.

Wish you a merry little Xmas too.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Where Are You Christmas -- Royce

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/yGDccSdx95A/

Where are you Christmas
Why can’t I find you
Why have you gone away
Where is the laughter
You used to bring me
Why can’t I hear music play

My world is changing
I’m rearranging
Does that mean Christmas changes too

Where are you Christmas
Do you remember
The one you used to know
I’m not the same one
See what the time’s done
Is that why you have let me go

Christmas is here
Everywhere, oh
Christmas is here
If you care, oh

If there is love in your heart and your mind
You will feel like Christmas all the time

I feel you Christmas
I know I’ve found you
You never fade away
The joy of Christmas
Stays here in silence
Fills each and every heart with love

You are my Christmas
Fill my heart with love

Be Real

royce64ever — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 09:24:00 GMT

I love singing, just purely love.

A voice, a song, a something in the song.

Coz I feel most confident when I am singing.

I feel confident not because I think that I’m special.

Being special is to others, I don’t wanna insure peace of mind according to others’ thoughts, no matter whether being normal or special.

But the point is we all need to be confident. Don’t lose your heart no matter what you’ve been through. Sometimes, when you are the youngest member in a team, the old colleagues may not want you to be better than them and to be successful. Even though you are the best, they may make you feel like you are only #15. You could never be #1 if they do not want you to be. Life isn’t gonna be that easy, and still we have to suck it up and keep faith.

In the past few years, China was showered with talent contests like America Idols. People were crazy about that. They quit their jobs and skipped classes to take part in the competition dreaming to get famous overnight, but they didn’t get through to it and lost their jobs. I’m not saying that they are not talented enough, but be real. Life is not always about overnight fame, even if you are really talented.

There are always stories about underappreciated people, I’ve also experienced that. But I understand that confidence is based on capability and strength. If you have the ability to be #1 and persist in the efforts, you will have the respect you deserve one day.

But, we still need to be aware that respect and fame are still something virtual, being a overmatch in life is what we should seek for. We should not be just satisfied with comfort or addicted to pursuing fantasy.

I had a lot of classmates that much addicted to online games. I have to admit that they are really good gamers. They are always the one to lead and to give command. So I think maybe the fun conversation after playing games would temporarily make them forget that they didn’t pass the exam or got an E for a paper. But how could they just escape from reality and seek this visional kinda sense of achievement. Sure it won’t be a problem if this achievability would inspire you to strive for more in reality. But if your life is a mess, even if you are a hero in those games, so what?!

It is not bad that the virtual world of cyberspace offers us a stage to show our talent in some aspects. But we have to be real. The real stage for us is the reality, the colleagues, friends, family that we see everyday. The virtual world is just a place to let out our emotions.

=======================

Plus: here is a live performance of me and a Newegg colleague, Ann. We were representing Newegg Xi’an, performing for the Annual Show of Xi’an Software Park. Ann was a bit nervous (I’m not coz I’ve done a lot of shows before, XD), but we rocked that night, coz most of other performers were lip-synching. Check it out:

Everyday (Live @ XA Software Park) by Ann & Royce

Blame Google for becoming stupid?!

royce64ever — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 00:38:00 GMT

Google is ten years old now. If you ask is there anything else could change our existing concepts, culture, knowledge structure and business model profoundly within 10 years? It has to be Google. For anything that you do not know, just google it! Those show-off professors and scholars lost their pride when Google appeared, and those who earn money under information asymmetry found life won’t be that easy anymore in front of Google.

What we called learning was actually moving knowledge from one place to another, for example, from textbook to your brain, temporarily. You will need to remember with great effort in which year Watt invented the steam engine, which poet wrote “No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm” in which poem, how many structural formulas of benzene are there, and now, you can even easily google out a “perfect” graduation thesis to send away your teacher, but sure you’re gonna pray that your teacher won’t overthrow your schemes with Google just like you did.

Some people are worried about the “search engine addiction” of the younger generation. It’s interesting, every generation seemed worried about their next generation, not aware that they were also being worried by their parents some years ago. Actually, I have a similar question for those who have got used to and have been enjoying the modern civilization, are you electricity addicted? Can you live without electricity? I guess NO.

The specialists and scholars, however, are worried that Google is making us lose the ability to concentrate. A well-known critic Nicholas Carr has post an article Is Google Making Us Stupid? in The Atlantic.

“And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles.”

He thinks that if we depend on computer as the medium to understand the world, it would eventually become our mind. Carr’s article striked a chord with lots of readers, and surely a few argument. More and more people just can not settle down to read any article that is more than 1000 words, let alone a book.

In fact, I think what the scholars worried about is not losing the ability of concentration. (After all, Carr is writing his new book in earnest and analyzing whether Google really makes us stupid.) What Google really fears them is the subversive interpretation and reconstruction of existing knowledge and culture, which is one of the tasks accomplished by Internet. But what Google did was just reorganizing a large amount of existing information for people to get them more easily. Google never and will ever replace human brain to think.

Some people are stupid, but not due to depending on Google too much. They are still stupid if there is no Google. It’s because they have a brain but they never think. It's like an awful cook can pour the eggs into a pan and sprinkle salt; they can’t make a better dish than this even if there are more ingredients given to him. So I believe “stupidity is a defect of moral”, it has nothing to do with intelligence, and Google.

Google has been with us for 10 years, I can’t predict how it would be later on. For now, Google has done really great about eliminating monopoly in knowledge and popularizing knowledge.

habit of computering

royce64ever — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:07:00 GMT

habit – when you get accustomed to something new, sooner or later you acquiesce to it, and eventually you take it for granted involuntarily as your nature.

When history changed, and something new resulted, we can’t help thinking- why is this? Why is it different than it was before? The answer is that we have regarded what we had before as routine, and are still lying the repellent phase to the unaccustomed new stuff. It’s like there is an anti-rejection period for patients after organ transplantation; and it takes time to get a kid to use his right hand instead of left hand.

Nowadays, computer has become an indispensable part of modern life, from writing with pen and ink to typing on a keyboard, from unwonted in the beginning to accustomed to it now. When people were forced to use computer to work and study instead of pen and ink, they were unwonted to the unfamiliar thing and they complained a lot. Some scholars even lifted up an outcry that we cannot let computer replace our mind or we would get lazy. But slowly people got used to it. When they discovered the benefits of it while using it, they stopped complaining and enjoyed it.

Along with the computer network development and the thorough application, we then feel unwonted if we could not get on to the Net. Some even said, without the internet, computer is just scrap heap. Then we were accustomed to surfing the internet. Gradually, some people would say: I can’t get down to read something through; I only read a page at a glance. And my spontaneity and creativity are on the decrease. When I need to do a survey or write a paper, I only searched pieces on internet and make a hotchpotch of other people's ideas. However, populace may remain relatively unaffected by the fear, because we have gotten used to it.

When internet appeared, we have to type in letter by letter in the address bar to go to the site. Then we have Yahoo and Google, we just need to type in related words instead of remembering every letter. There came higher demand gradually. Then netizens started to complain spam and spam ware. But complain is complain, we still surf the internet as often as ever. Who would abandon internet only because they don’t wanna see spam? Nobody! When yahoo first came out, there was nearly no spam. Then pop-up ads appeared, later the huge banner ads and Web video ads. Web surfers gawked by the hundreds of thousands over ads virtually overnight. Aged computer even got jammed by those spam when open the website. But we sucked it up, coz we have been upgraded to get accustomed to the web pages full of colorful ads from the original blank page.

Everything has its own reason for existing. So this explains why people could gradually accept existence in possible, and get accustomed to it. It’s just an endless process: We have a routine, and we get unsatisfied with it slowly; then we invent something new, and we complain about it then get used to it; we feel unsatisfied again. This is to say, habit and unsatisfaction push forward advancement. We got used to computer, to internet, to google and yahoo, to massive spam ads blitz, what’s next?