For all entrepreneurs,
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.- Langston Hughes
Monthly Archive for July, 2005
The worst thing that can happen to an entrepreneur is running out of money. When money is running out, a natural reaction is to try to save. But this, we know, is a vicious cycle. The more we try to save, the less we spend, the less we do, less gets done. Eventhing dribbled to a stop.
I’m not running out of money soon but it had been going lower since 2Q 2005. I know I need to spend more on hiring but I’m cutting back.
Need to find ways to overcome the staffing problem.
Update:
On running a business and getting employee, this is a good one: Morph of a Nerd CEO -€“ The First Employees
CNET News.com has an article
Driven to distraction by technology. A very fitting account of what I face now. Of course some of my distractions are self-inflicted - I surf the net way too much.
Technology can be so much fun for a techie like myself. Before I know it, I spent the day soaking up ideas, trying new things but not doing any real work. This is not really bad in the sense that one need to be exposed and grasp new ideas. On the other hand things are getting dangerous when I procastinate on more important things and do the less important ones (like writing this blog entry).
Wasted enought time on 43things.com today.
It is simple ideas like this that we start to appreciate the power of the Internet, of linking people together, of sharing.
Just when I start to think that no more ideas could come out of the Internet, I’m proven wrong. First StumbleUpon, now 43 Things.
When I stop thinking and go back to work, I realise the world is the same old world. No one really know about a website that connects people, where people share their goals, 43 things they want to do, or 43 places they want to go.
Want an idea? Think: simple, imagine, share, fun, love, life, achievement, …
With almost all my waking hours spent online, I think that every tools needed on the computer can be found online, in a few clicks.
In the case of the dictionary, this is certainly true. I don’t even own a physical dictionary now.On Firefox, just install the Dictionary Search extension and right click away to look up unknown words.
There is also the dictionary search engine in the top right corner of Firefox. Just key in any word, control-down-arrow a few times to get the dictionary.com search and hit enter.
The only time when all these fail is when the Internet connection is down. So this is where WordWeb comes in handy.
WordWeb is free dictionary for non-commercial personal use. It is useful to have on the desktop to quickly lookup words without going online.
On my old harddisk, I had WordWeb installed but hardly use it. When I changed harddisk I didn’t bother to install it. Recently I was reading and wanted to look up a word and the Internet connection was down. At that moment WordWeb came to mind again.
WordWeb is nice app to have sitting on the desktop for the occassional word look up. It has so other functions but I never got around to use it.
What I like about ?
- Able to use when offline
- Fast response compared to online dictionaries
- Does its job
Where to get it?
Current version: 3.03
Function: Dictionary and Thesaurus
 Open source is fast gaining momentum in Asia.
Asian Open Source Centre is taking shape quite nicely since the last time I saw it. MIMOS Open Source, the Malaysian government lead open source initiative is driving it.
In case you miss it, Firefox and Thunderbird are out. Both version 1.0.6. This follows very shortly after the 1.0.5 release to fix some incompatibility.
Ten Minute Guide to Conducting a Job Interview
by William W. Larson
Had been interviewing candidates without much success lately, so grabbed a few books about interviewing to get a more in-depth feel of the subject.
Despite the claim, more than 10 minutes is required to read this book but it can scanned through pretty quickly.
Overall I find most of the content not very helpful to my context. The book is targeted at the American interviewers so many of the suggestions are not relevant to China or even Singapore or for that matter anywhere outside US.
There are plenty of legal cautions and Amazon.com reviews praised the legal section. Just by reading them alone, one can imagine the "Legal Minefield" American interviewers had to tread through.
The author recommended his Structured Behavioral Interviewing and claim and tried to sells its strength.
My only take away is the anecdote about the woman interviewee whose father passed away. It paints a very vivid picture of how one should be careful about judging body language.
If for nothing, the book serves as a good background understanding of what different employer of different culture, nationality are preoccupied with when interviewing.
What would be an ideal interview book for me?
It should
- cover interviewing in China or at the very least cover cultural differences and how to handle them;
- include what small company should do, most book assume a big corporate setting;
- describe from both interviewer and interviewee perspectives
Let me know if you came across such book.
Tending to produce ill will, provoke envy, hateful or resentment.
Implication of discrimination, or intend to discriminate.
An invidious remark.
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