May 2009
Microsoft Update Quietly Installs Firefox... →
If you’re using Firefox (heck, everyone should be) and recently updated Windows, you will notice that Microsoft quietly put in an extension that increases your vulnerability when surfing the web.
This just makes one of the safest browsers in the world unsafe. MS truly sucks.
Oh, I forgot to mention that MS disabled the “uninstall” button a.k.a. you can’t uninstall it from...
Asymmetric Knowledge
I was reading about this after I went through the comments of one of Scott Adam’s blog posts (Money and Knowledge).
So what is asymmetric knowledge?
Asymmetric knowledge is in its simplest terms something one knows but not everyone knows. It gives an advantage to the one who knows this piece of knowledge over those who do not know it.
Based on knowing this knowledge, we can sell services....
What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20: A Crash Course... →
I soo want this book. Highly recommended by Guy Kawasaki.
More Stories of Stupid IT People
I had a meeting today with representatives from Pervasive Software. They specialize in data integration and data management.
This guy was telling me a story about a client who wanted to synchronize 40 million records to a web service “real-time”. So he quantified “real-time”. The lowest guy in the IT chain responded every second. The mid-level guy responded every 10...
Ovi, Nokia's New App Store, Off to Rocky Start →
The problem with Nokia is that they have so many phones. Most of those phones that they are selling are being sold to a group of consumers that don’t give a shit about apps. A small number are only interested in such apps.
Unlike Apple and RIM (Blackberry) who focus on a niche market (with purchasing power) by only having few products, they are making sure that there is a market for their...
The Manga Guide to Databases →
Just an excerpt, but looks like a really fun read. =)
Star Wars ABC →
Why wasn't this taught in college?
One of our interns remarked, “why wasn’t this taught in college?” She was trying out Pervasive, a suite of data integration products we felt would compliment QlikView.
I replied, “in college, you are taught to deal with one or a set of applications and one database.”
The reason, of course, is that nobody can expect an average IT student to grasp the real IT world at...
Quantifying the Financial Impact of Discipline
For the last few months, my average electricity bill was 2.6K.
Last month I resolved to control how often and how long I will use an air conditioner. On top of that, I decided to buy an electric fan.
I just got my most recent electric bill and discovered that it dropped to 1.6K. That’s a pretty good 1K of savings - on the average. That is equivalent to 12K savings annually!
By being a...
Not So Smart Bank People
I have had a chance to talk to a small, local bank. I’ve had my qualms meeting this bank because their size would be an indicator of analytical maturity. While I was in the meeting, one of them told me that they were also looking for a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool. I told her that since we are selling a Business Intelligence (BI) tool, the management aspect of a CRM tool would...
Introducing Wolfram|Alpha →
Dubbed the “computational knowledge engine”
Enjoying the sand and surf in Boracay! =)
Email from Headhunter
Today I got an email from a headhunter whose company wants me as their Business Intelligence Team Leader. This is the second time I’ve gotten a job offer in the last 2 months for Singapore.
I haven’t replied yet but I’m getting more curious as to how much are the job offers that are coming my way. I still have the same feeling as the previous offer - that I’m not going to...
Wealth Overhead
Has anyone noticed that for those investors that lost so many millions (perhaps billions) during this financial turmoil, many committed suicide ?
Of course everyone knows the reason. They lost so much, lost face and had to disappear from the face of the earth just to ‘get away from it all’. I would say that’s one of the reasons.
Rather, I believe it’s about...
