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I'm a Burmese undergrad from Singapore Management University, studying IS Management. I love foraging technology news, getting dirty with codes, seeking innovation.
I'm also a spirited Gooner!

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This is roughly what happened to my life.

Just come across Joel’s 2001 post on IT consulting. It is a real shame that I didn’t see this earlier. This summed up a colorful state of my life and the company. I fell into this cycle trap. Yet, it’s not all doom and gloom while it is tough. I am confident we will get over this hurdle.

Mike was unhappy. He had hired a huge company of IT consultants to build The System. The IT consultants he hired were incompetents who kept talking about “The Methodology” and who spent millions of dollars and had failed to produce a single thing.

Luckily, Mike found a youthful programmer who was really smart and talented. The youthful programmer built his whole system in one day for $20 and pizza. Mike was overjoyed. He recommended the youthful programmer to all his friends.

Youthful Programmer starts raking in the money. Soon, he has more work than he can handle, so he hires a bunch of people to help him. The good people want too many stock options, so he decides to hire even younger programmers right out of college and “train them” with a 6 week course.

The trouble is that the “training” doesn’t really produce consistent results, so Youthful Programmer starts creating rules and procedures that are meant to make more consistent results. Over the years, the rule book grows and grows. Soon it’s a six-volume manual called The Methodology.

After a few dozen years, Youthful Programmer is now a Huge Incompetent IT Consultant with a capital-M-methodology and a lot of people who blindly obey the Methodology, even when it doesn’t seem to be working, because they have no bloody idea whatsoever what else to do, and they’re not really talented programmers — they’re just well-meaning Poli Sci majors who attended the six-week course.

And Newly Huge Incompetent IT Consultant starts messing up. Their customers are unhappy. And another upstart talented programmer comes and takes away all their business, and the cycle begins anew.

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John's Tumblr: Steve Jobs

lilly:

Like many of us, I’ve been thinking a lot about Steve Jobs the last few days — thinking about the man and his legacy. I’ve been having some trouble even understanding the way I feel, let alone being able to put it into words. Lots of folks have asked me what I think, and have been surprised that I…

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Newsweek Inc. for $1

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This is really sad. First, TV Guide, then followed by BusinessWeek. Newsweekly era is now officially over. These magazines used to have an enormous media stature in 60s/70s. People used to run to newsstands every week to get them and find out what are the most pressing issues around the world, around the US. If a person or a topic was featured on the cover, it’s heavenly respected. But glory days are all over now. Did internet and its companion devices wipe these papers out from public’s interest? Random online ads killed traditional news ads?

Hope these giant publishers continue to produce quality contents, perhaps by forging allies with that merciless internet. I believe well-crafted, polished articles can still win groundless rants of personal (or even professional in that case) blogs!

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Edu Interview - Arsenal Brasil via arseblog

Edu is one of true Arsenal legends. In this video, he talks amicably about Arsene Wenger, the Invincible Arsenal team whose whole-season-unbeaten record is still unmatched, and his life in London. He shared really interesting thoughts as well as some insights and values this football club has always had.

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Microsoft Q4 2010 Earnings

Still pretty stunning results. Although it was highly anticipated, Apple was nowhere near to beat Microsoft’s revenue yet.

Microsoft Corp. today announced record fourth-quarter revenue of $16.04 billion for the quarter ended June 30, 2010, a 22% increase from the same period of the prior year. Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $5.93 billion, $4.52 billion and $0.51 per share, which represented increases of 49%, 48% and 50%, respectively, when compared with the prior year period.

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Henry scores against Spurs!

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He was a phenomenon. Even at the age of 32, he is still a class . A true Arsenal legend scored again against his long time foes: Tottenham Hot Spurs!

“The young bloke from that first half, Henry, looks like he’s got a good future,” joked Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp.
“He was fantastic. He’s a different class. He’s still a world class player. We were fortunate to win the game!

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The Spies Who Loved Us - Friedman

Intriguing article by Friedman. For me, I do wonder why Russians would spy on Americans at this point in time. They will only find failed lobbyists, collapsed Wall Street, and some leaked oil.

Thomas L. Friedman

Look, if you had told me that we had just arrested 11 Finns who were spying on our schools, then I’d really have felt good — since Finland’s public schools always score at the top of the world education tables. If you had told me that 11 Singaporeans were arrested spying on how our government works, then I’d really have felt good — since Singapore has one of the cleanest and well-run bureaucracies in the world. If you had told me that 11 Hong Kong Chinese had been arrested studying how we regulate our financial markets, then I’d really have felt good — since that is something Hong Kong excels at. And if you had told me that 11 South Koreans were arrested studying our high-speed bandwidth penetration, then I’d really have felt good — because we’ve been lagging them for a long time.

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