https://dchua.com/tags/thoughts/ Recent content in thoughts on davidchua Hugo -- gohugo.io en-us Sun, 12 Jan 2014 18:32:25 +0800 https://dchua.com/posts/2014-01-12-3d-printing-and-my-alma-mater-singapore-polytechnic/ Sun, 12 Jan 2014 18:32:25 +0800 https://dchua.com/posts/2014-01-12-3d-printing-and-my-alma-mater-singapore-polytechnic/ Last week, I had the opportunity to drop by my Alma Mater where I’ve spent 3 years of my post-secondary school education picking up Electronics, Computer and Communication Engineering. Its been a good 9 years since graduating and so much have changed. The buildings that I remember are mostly renovated (and is still renovating) and the entire campus is full of little construction sites, both demolition and construction. I was in Singapore Polytechnic, not out of randomness but to exhibit Fabbox a cloud-based total 3D Printing solution that my cousin and his friends started. https://dchua.com/posts/2013-07-25-network-connectivity-broke-twilios-billing-system/ Thu, 25 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000 https://dchua.com/posts/2013-07-25-network-connectivity-broke-twilios-billing-system/ Security and Infrastructure issues often intrique me. This morning, an already old (in internet terms) news story broke on HN, pointing to a discussion on antirez about the recent billing incident where Twilio’s customers were billed multiple times and subsequently, some of whom had their accounts suspended. I’m not going to repeat the brief of the story because you probably would already have clicked on the above two links and read anyway but two points to take away from this: https://dchua.com/posts/2013-03-19-google-reader-is-dead-why-not-just-drink-to-it/ Tue, 19 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000 https://dchua.com/posts/2013-03-19-google-reader-is-dead-why-not-just-drink-to-it/ Google Reader is dead. As an avid Reader user who has at last count, 222 feeds pumping in news all day all the time, the news is nothing less than devastating. As we mourn the loss of an essential tool that feeds us our information diet, we at the office thought that, instead of developing an in-house RSS reader like the rest of the world, why not just drink to it and be done with it. https://dchua.com/posts/2013-01-27-leanux-week-2013-day-3/ Sun, 27 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000 https://dchua.com/posts/2013-01-27-leanux-week-2013-day-3/ Attended Lean UX Week 2013 Day 3 held at Microsoft’s offices today. The following are just my notes for personal reference and are written as it is. Quotes: Talking about your startup/pitch to others, is not customer development. It doesn't validate anything. "Relationships are important than being right" "Lean startup is not cheap startup" "If u can develop a metric, and if u can meet that metric, then you have developed an important muscle in your company. https://dchua.com/posts/2012-04-20-the-perils-of-freelancing/ Fri, 20 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000 https://dchua.com/posts/2012-04-20-the-perils-of-freelancing/ Being a freelancer for the past 8 months had been one of the most exciting and simultaneously scary thing that have happened to me in a long time. Even though I have been running my own small businesses since 2003, they have always been done under the safety and comfort of being a student and having some form of backup safety net that is my parents. I always knew that if something went wrong with the business, I’d still have enough money to eat and could always start again in the future. https://dchua.com/posts/2012-04-11-the-new-internet-bubble-and-the-rise-of-the-countless-entrepreneurs/ Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000 https://dchua.com/posts/2012-04-11-the-new-internet-bubble-and-the-rise-of-the-countless-entrepreneurs/ The recent announcement that Facebook is acquiring Instagram for US$1 Bn have made shockwaves all across the globe. This comes hot after the heels of the well publicized IPO of Groupon and the pending Facebook IPO. Now, to me, Instagram is no where worth the $1bn that Facebook is willing to pay for it. For one, its only a small team of less than 10 men. Secondly, Instagram has no business revenue. https://dchua.com/posts/2012-04-04-dont-estimate-software/ Wed, 04 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000 https://dchua.com/posts/2012-04-04-dont-estimate-software/ Just read a great post by Dan Shipper which was posted on Hacker News. In his article, Dan writes about how as humans we tend to be unable to estimate complexity and hence we make really bad estimation of how long it will take to do something. Now let’s talk about software. When a non-technical person attempts to estimate software development time they come armed with their two basic heuristics: complexity based on size and complexity based on speed. https://dchua.com/posts/2012-03-15-a-traffic-light-to-keep-stock/ Thu, 15 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0000 https://dchua.com/posts/2012-03-15-a-traffic-light-to-keep-stock/ Just got home from a thereputic walk around the private estate near my block. Ashamely, its been quite sometime since I’ve done something like this, but I’m glad that I did it. Nothing helps to clear the mind like some jazz and soul music (from Lush 99.5fm) while taking a walk in a dead quiet neighbourhood on a chilly evening. The past few months have been quite a challenge; Having to get more involved politically as well as juggling various client projects on my freelance side of things. https://dchua.com/posts/2012-03-13-big-ideas-are-scary/ Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0000 https://dchua.com/posts/2012-03-13-big-ideas-are-scary/ Big ideas are scary. That's the gist of what I've got from Paul Graham's keynote speech at PyCon US 2012 and "Frighteningly Ambitious Startup Ideas" Don't be afraid of big ideas, instead attack it from different angles in smaller bites. Start small and eventually you'll get there. Oh and check out the rest of the videos from PyCon US 2012 https://dchua.com/posts/2011-12-28-go-on-watch-videos-at-work/ Wed, 28 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000 https://dchua.com/posts/2011-12-28-go-on-watch-videos-at-work/ All developers should spend at least an hour a day reading tech blogs, watching tech/conference videos or writing blogs. Even if you’re at work. There’s no substitute for being aware of what’s happening in your community. If you want to be a decent developer you have to know what is out there and what your peers are working on. At the very least you need to have an opinion on technology issues. https://dchua.com/posts/2011-12-21-free-the-taxi-industry-liberalize-the-market/ Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000 https://dchua.com/posts/2011-12-21-free-the-taxi-industry-liberalize-the-market/ With 4 out of 5 of Taxi Operators here in Singapore, announcing that they will be raising their prices in tandem with ComfortDelgro, perhaps it is time for us to start thinking about how we can liberalize the market again to bring some form of real competition into the picture. Bring back the Yellow-top taxis. Allow individuals to own their own vehicles again. Let them set the price. Let them decide how to conduct their business and then we’ll have a real free market. https://dchua.com/posts/2011-10-06-rip-steve/ Thu, 06 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000 https://dchua.com/posts/2011-10-06-rip-steve/ Today is quite a momentous day in the world of Technology. Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computers (now Apple Inc), passed away at the age 56. He was a legend. A misfit. A person who dared to think Different. Together with Steve Wozniak, they gave the modern Personal Computer to the world. They inspired an entire generation and spawned an entirely new industry. Today he will mostly be remembered as the person who brought iPod and iPhone to the world. https://dchua.com/posts/2011-06-29-would-rss-eventually-be-replaced-by-facebook-pages/ Wed, 29 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000 https://dchua.com/posts/2011-06-29-would-rss-eventually-be-replaced-by-facebook-pages/ Nowadays, most blogs and communities would have their own Facebook Page in which they would push updates to their ‘fans’ just like how RSS would had done to RSS readers of subscribers. The only difference is there’s a larger community of users on Facebook that blogs can reach out to without subscribers having to have the technical know-how to add RSS feeds into their readers. Not to mention the social interactions of the updates would also provide blog owners an additional feedback channel that RSS on its own doesn’t have. https://dchua.com/posts/2011-02-06-why-we-never-seem-to-finish-our-great-ideas/ Sun, 06 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000 https://dchua.com/posts/2011-02-06-why-we-never-seem-to-finish-our-great-ideas/ Some guy on HN asked recently about a problem that most of us have. You know that brilliant web-app that you came up with in the shower? The one that you know is going to change the world when its released? After coming out of the shower, you rush to your room, usually still dripping wet, to take out a piece of paper and scribble the idea down before you forget. https://dchua.com/posts/2010-06-24-the-joys-of-engineering-leadership/ Thu, 24 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0000 https://dchua.com/posts/2010-06-24-the-joys-of-engineering-leadership/ Its always great to watch both Brian Fitzpatrick and Ben Collins-Sussman speak at Google’s IO conferences. This year at the recent Google IO 2010 conference, they gave a talk on ‘The joys of engineering leadership’ which I’d recommend every technical manager to watch. Their trademark humor and banter makes the video not only entertaining to watch but absolutely insightful too. Well worth the 56 minutes. https://dchua.com/posts/2009-11-09-morning-business-observations/ Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 https://dchua.com/posts/2009-11-09-morning-business-observations/ What started off as a typical Monday morning, ended up being a real-life class in how to conduct business. I was out with my dad for breakfast (which by itself is pretty rare considering that he works, and we seldom eat out for breakfast) at our nearby ‘kopitiam’ (coffee shop), when we decided to replace our aging water heater that no longer works. We stopped by a local hardware store that seems to be running for as long (or more) as the number of years I’ve been breathing.