Reflections of a Business-Driven Life

Sun, 09 Oct 2005 15:04:59 GMT

Moving Bizdrivenlife

I am now updating and moving to the new bizdrivenlife site here.

I will still maintain this site as a mirror site for some days and weeks, but most of my new posts will be at the new site. In the next few days, I will also transfer the www.bizdrivenlife.net so that if you are using this as your marker, you will be redirected there.

If you are using my feedburner RSS to download my posts, which is as follows:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/ReflectionsOfABusiness-drivenLife, then I have redirected it to download from the new site, so you don't need to do anything. However, if you are not downloading anything new, pls. go to my new site, and subscribe to the Feedburner RSS on the upper left corner of the blog.

I hope that by moving my blog into WordPress, I can be more flexible, and it will be easier for you to search, locate the information you want, as well as notice the better organization of the new site.

The same 8 subcategories will still be there, and I have taken also the liberty of transferring some of the top posts the last few weeks there. My selected writings for the last one year is also there.

I am hoping with this new setup, I will be able to more easily communicate with you, and scale even better heights.

As usual, thank you for your support, and your comments are always welcome.

Sat, 08 Oct 2005 08:50:10 GMT

Revisiting the Virtue of Being Frugal " on life"

I am a frugal person, and I have said once too often that I believe happiness is being able to live without. There are a lot of people that says being smart in spending is not hip in this world, and sometimes it gives the wrong impression.

I am not sure about it not being hip, but surely there is more to life than going with trends that might not make sense, just to be seen as cool. I would rather deal with business partners who appreciate that this value can put a businessman on very firm footing, and if you are just trying to impress people with nothing but that you have loads of cash and is foolishly willing to splurge it on something unnecessary, I am not sure if you are attracting the right business partner at all in terms of building companies that lasts.

I am not saying we should not spend on things that make sense, and definitely it is not about not being generous. AFter all, while I advocate smart spending, I also believe that the whole purpose in life is to be happy, and the most important element on it to be happy is to afford to be generous.

While I make sure I don't spoil myself with useless things, happiness does consist on giving some nice gifts to friends, and also on treating them out ocassionally for lunch or dinner.

What is your philosophy in life in terms of spending money?

Sat, 08 Oct 2005 01:50:54 GMT

MVP Summit 2005 "on technology"

The Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) Summit was held in Seattle , Washington from Sept 28 to Oct 1. This year, over 1,500 of Microsoft’s MVP were there to attend various sessions and conference. Speakers include Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Microsoft Group VP’s Kevin Johnson and Jim Allchin. Here are some pictures.

That’s me in the Experimental Music Project Museum ( EMP Museum) in Seattle where the MVP Dinner was held.
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Wed, 05 Oct 2005 23:40:58 GMT

TrainMan (On Life ) (selected articles in bizdrivenlife compiled)

I was on a plane going over some movie selections when I chanced upon a really nice movie. It is a Japanese movie called TrainMan, and some of my friends who know about it says that it is quite a popular movie that was just recently released. They say this story come from a web board, then a book, then a play then a movie. So it was a popular story that hit a lot of fans, especially the Japanese.

The movie stars Takayuki Yamada and Miki Nakatni. Why am I talking about a movie?

Basically because the movie is about Information technology, and it highlights the changes in the ways we work and live because of technology, but at the end, it shows that with all the changes, we are still basically the same.

The movie revolves around a 22 year old single male, who is what you would call a computer geek. He has never dated anybody in his life, and he was content to spend his job as a computer engineer. He would only have 2 hobbies – going to Akahibara ( Japan’s famous electronic and computer stores district) to look up computers and parts, and to spend his time in the internet, either browsing, or chatting. He thought that would be his life.

Then one day, he saved a young woman from a drunk on the train on his way home, and he became attracted to her. Not knowing what to do, he went to a chat board site, and started telling his story – basically, it was his outlet, and it was also a cry for help. What should he do? How can he develop a friendship with the girl.

From his post, he was able to tell his story, and he was able to make friends with about 9 people who come from different walks of life – a housewife, a househusband, a female professional, some single geeks, a businessman and others. These group of people became his advisers, even though they did not know one another. TrainMan is basically the call name that the actor put on when he sign to the web site.

So the story starts. These informal group of advisers share their expertise and their advice, and of course, their advice basically stems from where they come from. For instance, when TrainMan dated the girl, there were different interpretations on why the girl would insist that each pay his own during meals. When the girl gave Trainman a gift of tea cups, there were different versions on what it meant.

So this group advises TrainMan, and help give him suggestions – on where to bring the girl for dates, on what kind of wine to order, on what to wear and others.

TrainMan also, as his relationship progresses found out what he has been missing – that while computers were great, and going to chat sites, and internet surfing and watching movies alone was enjoyable before, he began to find out that a meaningful friendship was actually something that was much much more.

At any rate, I think you basically can guess what happens at the end of the movie ( it is after all, a movie, right?), but it is quite an informative and entertaining romantic comedy, as well as a good glean on life that is now shaped by texting, and chatting.

At the end, with the successful relationship, his advisers started to think – if they were able, through giving Trainman courage, and advice, enable Trainman to make his life for the better, was there something else also for them? Shouldn’t they also get out of their world, and start to forming relationships, instead of a life just chatting, and playing video games.

So some of his advisers started to gain courage. Some started to sport new clothes, and new hairstyles. Knowing the happiness that the success gave to RainMan, 3 sworn bachelors started to look at girls with new meaning.

At the end, it was both an entertaining and refreshing look on life. And for sure, there is more to life than facing the computer screen, even how if how real the virtualization makes it to be.

Wed, 05 Oct 2005 23:26:16 GMT

The Billionaires of IT "on technology"

Four out of Five richest men in the planet earned it through IT. In total, based on the reports of Forbes Magazine, there are 34 billionaires who made it through information technology.

1. Bill Gates, Microsoft, $51 billion
3. Paul Allen, Microsoft, $22.5 billion
4. Michael Dell, Dell computers , $18 billion
5. Larry Ellison, Oracle, $17 billion
11. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft, $14 billion (more…)